all things considered

Pesarattu Upma and Kobbari Pacchadi

2011-07-08T21:02:00.005-04:00

Somewhat time-taking but healthy and filling south Indian breakfast. One of my favorites.

Here are the recipes I learned from my mom and tweaked along the way.
I am not listing all the ingredients separately. The key ingredients are Fresh coconut, Sooji (Bombai rava), Green Mung dal(Pesalu), ginger, green chilis and lime(or tamarind)

1) Kobbari Pacchadi: Prepare 1/2 cup chopped fresh coconut apprx 1 cm size
and set aside. Fry 2 tbl spoon dahlia (putnalu) and 2 tbl spoon urad dal (minappappu) in 3 tbl spoon oil and set aside in a grinder container. Fry 2 green chillis until soft in the left over oil and set aside. Grind the fried dahlia, urad dal, 1 tea spoon cumin(jeera) until soft. Add fried green chili, 1 small garlic clove, 1 cm ginger piece, salt and coconut pieces to the above. Grind for apprx half a min and add just enough water and grind to thick paste. Add juice of 1/2 lime, pulse and remove to a bowl. Make tadka with 2 tbl spoon hot oil, 1 tea spoon mustard seeds and few curry leaves. Add the sizzling tadka to the chutney (pacchadi).

- Refrigerate the left over fresh coconut for up to 1 week or freeze for few months
- You can replace lime juice with tamarind juice. Soak tamarind juice in water, squeeze the juice and use the water instead of the water while grinding
- You can replace dhalia(putnalu) with peanuts(pallilu) or chana dal (senaga pappu). Or you can skip them totally to get more coconut taste. You can also dry roast these instead of roasting them in oil if you want to reduce the oil used.
- This pacchadi stores well in refrigerator for 2-3 days although it tastes best when fresh. You can fry the coconut pieces as well to preserve the pacchadi for few days. Or just freeze your pacchadi for later use.

2) Upma: Heat 4 table spoon oil in a nonstick saucepan. Add 1 tablespon mustard, 1 tbl spoon urad dal. Once urad dal turns reddish brown, add 2 finely chopped green chillis, few curry leaves. once soft, add 3 cups water (or desired amount). Add salt, mix, close lid and let boil. Once water starts boiling, slowly add white sooji (bombai rava) as a thin stream with one hand stirring in circles with your other hand. I stop adding sooji when I feel the porridge is starting to slightly thicken. Usually its about 1:3 proportion for rava to water. But you can vary that based on whether you like your upma more thin or more thick. Reduce the heat to low and continue to stir to avoid forming balls.

- Optional: You can add Peanuts/Cashews/Chana dal along with Urad dal. I use them when I make the Upma as a breakfast by itself. When making with pesarattu, I like to keep the upma light and simple.
- Optional: You can use ghee (clarified butter) instead of oil - makes it more heavy, rich and tasty.
- Optional: Serve Upma with Lime wedges
- You can refrigerate and reheat for up to 2-3 days.

3) Pesarattu: Soak 1 cup Pesalu (green Mung) and 2 tbl spoon brown rice in water for a full day - Use atleast double the amount of water - they will double to triple in size. Next day, wash the pesalu. Keep the green skins of the pesalu. They are full of nutrients and add good texture. Grind with 1 inch fresh ginger, 3 or 4 green chillis and salt - Add just enough water to form a think batter. Take a thick round nonstick borderless pan. Heat until sprinkled water would sizzle. Rub oil all over the pan. Take a ladle full of batter. Pour in center. Immediately start spreading it over in circles from center towards the edges, forming sort of a thin pancake or a Crepe. This will need some practice but its totally worth it. Add some oil around the edges. Let it cook before flipping it to the other side. If its hard to remove it from pan for flipping, either the pan is not greased properly or the pesarattu is not cooked enough. It will turn slightly red brown when cooked thoroughly. Takes apprx 40 secs to 1 min to be done on one side. Flip it, let cook for about 1/2 min and serve hot with upma and kobbari pacchadi.

- Batter is best when fresh. Store batter in refrigerator for upto 1 additional day and make the pesarattus fresh.
- Optional: If you like onions, sprinkle finely chopped onions on one side of the pesarattu. Or you can mix finely chopped onions in the better itself.

Caprese salad

2011-07-08T20:48:00.003-04:00

An Easy, refreshing and healthy salad. Use tomatoes of your choice. I chopped 1 big yellow heirloom tomato and 2 regular red tomatoes and fresh mozzarella in the same size, 1 tbl spoon fresh finely chopped rosemary, 6 fresh basil leaves chopped, drizzled with olive oil and chilled until served. Sprinkle salt and pepper and toss just before serving. yumm!!!

Optional: Serve with hard bread of choice.

Ala Modalayindi 4/5

2011-01-31T10:27:00.000-05:00

My ratings for recent telugu movies

2011-01-19T14:44:00.006-05:00

On a scale of 5

MagaDheera	4.25
Leader	4.00
Rakta Charitra Part 1	4.00
Vedam	4.00
Anaganaga Oka Dheerudu	3.50
Brundavanam	3.25
Adurs	3.25
Ye Maya Chesave	3.00
Robo	3.00
Varudu	3.00
Orange	2.50
Ragda	2.50
Maryada Ramanna	2.50
Darling	2.50

Whats on my mind?

2010-01-28T09:36:00.001-05:00

Knowledge is Power
Health is wealth

Callaway gardens Free admission

2010-01-05T12:27:00.001-05:00

Check it out here if you are interested.

Most watched tv shows of the decade in US

2010-01-03T12:07:00.003-05:00

#1 Friends finale of 2004 (52,500,000 viewers)
#2 Survivor finale of 2000 season (51,7000,00 viewers)

Source: CBS Sunday morning

Divan Restaurant & Lounge - Atlanta

2009-12-29T12:15:00.005-05:00

A friend of ours had suggested the place- Divan - a long time back but we checked it out last night. Its a Mediterranean restaurant and Hookah lounge. Nice and cozy place with great food. . Located in Buckhead, its a house converted to a restaurant. They have a bar and a lounge downstairs. Upstairs they have 3 more rooms - Red room, yellow room and I guess blue room. Most rooms have sofas with low seating and some have dining tables. Couple of rooms have fire places as well. Its has a homely but exotic feel to it. I'd definitely go back not just for the ambiance but their food tasted great and service was good as well.

Its that time of the year again

2009-12-26T01:38:00.002-05:00

Here is my blog post from last year on my new year resolution which is: Try and make less spelling mistakes.

I did the "Try" part but I guess I could have tried harder. I'm not at a stage where I make no typos at all. Anyways, I didn't invest into how to quantify my improvement - So, I cant measure how much improvement I made or otherwise, but I am carrying over that resolution into the next year - "Keep trying". And I think I saw a facebook game/app that scores you on how good you type or something of that sort - I need to find one of those so I can record my much anticipated improvement. Please let me know if you know of such a tool.

There's another resolution in works - contingent upon some rules and regulations that still need to be worked out and signed off on by my dear husband. If the bill passes, I'll publish it.

Chrome tidbit

2009-12-26T00:18:00.004-05:00

Just this morning I discovered something cool about Chrome. My system was responding very slow - seemed like some process was hogging it. Checked in the task manager and found that Chrome was eating up the Processor. I killed that process and the system showed much better performance almost instantly. I was expecting the browser to close so I can probably reopen it. But that never happened. I was like what is going on..

The fact is that Chrome has a separate renderer process for each site instance and killing that process doesnt affect the rest of the tabs or the browser in general. In my case, one of the tabs was using shockwave or flash and probably that was the problem process which got terminated. I think its a cool thing. That is not the case with either Firefox or IE where you'd have to restart the browser and reopen the tabs.

Chrome's process models and their advantages and disadvantages are described in this Chrome article in case you are interested. And here and here as well.

Fireflies - OwlCity

2009-12-18T09:29:00.005-05:00

Saving the lyrics for my easy access - but loooove the song as well:

You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep

'Cause they'd fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude
But I would just stand and stare

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems

'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance

A foxtrot above my head
A sock hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

Leave my door open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
'Cause I feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep
(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep

To ten million fireflies
I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell

But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
When I fall asleep

I'd like to make myself believe
That planet earth turns slowly
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay
Awake when I'm asleep
Because my dreams are bursting at the seams

Is this food okay to eat?

2009-12-10T12:48:00.005-05:00

Lot of times I find myself wondering how long is food okay to consume? For example:

I forgot I even had this grated Parmesan - can I still use it?
Can I still use these eggs after the sell-by date?
Oh I didn't use these carrots yet? They seem to look okay..
This bay leaf is almost a year old - Is it safe to use?

Well, I found a website that can answer most such questions: http://stilltasty.com/

Movies and TV

2009-12-03T21:01:00.012-05:00

Juno - I love the film.. Watched it again today - got hooked when browsing the channels. Its made by director Jason Reitman. My husband wants to watch his new movie Up In The Air in the movie theater but I don't really like George Clooney - He looks old.. very old. So I don't know..

Oh and Scrubs is back - My brother-in-law made us scrubs addicts - I have two new episodes on my DVR already.. I cant wait to watch them. I'd watch them today if I hadn't already watched two hours of Survivor already. Yeah, Juno and then two episodes of Survivor. Got my fair dose of TV for the day. Survivor-Samoa its like the best Survivor EVER - The most strategic season I've followed - Especially loved the episode where Eric gets voted out. I think it stands with some well written movie screenplays - only its a reality show.

All the buzz about The Twilight Saga: New Moon - I wanted to watch the movie, but want to watch the original first. Anyways, I watched the author Stephanie Meyer's interview on Oprah the other day and her story made me really happy - She's a stay at home mom who studied literature but never planned or wanted to write, she just loved reading - she never even wrote a short story before - twilight was her very first book. In her words she got into a zombie mode as a dedicated mom of 3 little kids. She no longer knew who she was and really struggled for a moment to be herself at which time she had a dream - a dream so beautiful she wanted to never forget it - so she wrote down what it was and could not stop writing.. As a child she simply loved to read but she never ever read vampire stories. What I enjoyed most was when she was a child, her dad would read a big fat book to her at bed time - something he wanted to read - and stop at the most exciting part that she had to go find it in his closet the next day to read what happened next - she was reading way over her levels for children that age.

Co-incidentally, the same day, my husband told me the story of another writer Prem Panicker - sort of a similar story. He, as a child, was never interested in education - but he loved to read comic books. He read comics so much that right before his exams his parents had to hide all his comic books and would return them after the exams. One time, after his exams are over, he wakes up excited, expecting to see all his comic books would be returned to his bed side, but couldn't find any. He gets annoyed with his parents but only waits for them to return them back to where they belong. But those comic books never came back. Then, one day when his parents are away and he's bored at home, he finds a book on the table in his living room and starts reading it - though its really not his subject of interest. But he gets interested in it and finishes the book. Then, the next day he's around, he finds another book and wanted to check it out. He finishes that one as well.. Later on he realizes that his dad was placing those books there on purpose and today he so grateful what his dad did to bring out the best of him.

Well, well - I may not be a fan of Prem Panicker's or Stephanie Meyer's work, but I am fan of the stories of these story tellers :)

black eyed peas - I gotta feeling lyrics

2009-10-23T10:25:00.005-04:00

Love the song. You can find these lyrics anywhere - but here you find them as well:

I gotta feeling...
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling...
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling... (Woohoo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling... (Woohoo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

Tonight's the night
Let's live it up
I got my money
Let's spend it up
Go out and smash it
Like Oh My God
Jump off that sofa
Let's kick it OFF

I know that we'll have a ball
If we get down
And go out
And just lose it all
I feel stressed out
I won't let it go
Lets go way out spaced out
And loosing all control

Fill up my cup
Mazel tov
Look at her dancing
Just take it... OFF
Lets paint the town
We'll shut it down
Let's burn the roof
And then we'll do it again

Lets do it (x4)
And do it (2x)
Let's live it up
And do it (3x)
Do it, do it
Lets do it(3x)

Cause I gotta feeling... (WoooHooo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling... (WoooHooo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling
Tonight's the night (HEY! )
Let's live it up (lets live it up)
I got my money (I'm paid)
Lets spend it up (Lets spend it up)
Go out and smash it (Smash it)
Like Oh My God (Like Oh My God)
Jump off that sofa (Come On! )
Lets kick it OFF

Fill up my cup (Drank)
Mazel tov (La chaim)
Look at her dancing (Move it Move it)
Just take it... OFF
Lets paint the town (Paint the town)
We'll shut it down (Shut it down)
Lets burn the roof (Woooooo)
And then we'll do it again

Lets do it (x4)
And do it (2x)
Let's live it up
And do it (3x)
Do it, do it
Lets do it(3x)
Do it, do it, do it, do it

Here we come
Here we go
We gotta rock
Easy come
Easy go
Now we on top
Feel the shot
Body rock
Rock it don't stop
Round and round
Up and down
Around the clock

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Friday, Saturday
Saturday to Sunday

Get, get, get, get, get with us
You know what we say (say)
Party everyday (x2)

I gotta feeling (WooHooo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

I gotta feeling (WooHooo)
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good good night

Woohoo

How sweet was that!

2009-09-11T10:02:00.004-04:00

Oprah had a sweet surprise at her 24th season kick off party.. You gotta check it out.. I mean this is something like a dream.. except its real... :)

Chefography

2009-08-15T14:18:00.006-04:00

I love biographies. But I cant spend a life time reading biographies. So, whats better than a tv show that tells me the biography of someone I know (from tv that is) and someone I see (on tv :) ) very often and would love to know more about ?

Nothing :) It was RachelRay's chefography. I did not know about the chefography show before but I happened to run into it last night and got hooked. Apparently the show was first aired in 2007. Nice show.. If you watch her show 30-min meals, you know how she always talks about her family, her wedding, her pets well.. all of those are the biggest treasures of her life. But what I also realized from the show is that some of her very close associates consider her THE MOST HARD WORKING PERSON on the planet. The funny thing was her fear for drving a car when she was young - because she killed a cat on her way to driving test.

Anyways.. It seems to me like in the beginning of her career, a lot of things happened just because it was her and much of it was not really planned. She was lucky, talented, harworking, adeventeruos and has always been down to earth and been herself. After she got on to food network, things have gotten very busy - more shows, more travel, books, her magazine, cookware but she does deserve all of the fame she's earned.

Most of all I like how she knows what she is and what she is not as well.

I tried to find the video online but I couldn't. I'll keep looking and I'll update the post for anyone that might be interested.

BYOB

2009-08-13T13:21:00.001-04:00

Not Bring your own Beer...

This time its bring your own buddy at TGI Fridays:

http://www.tgifridays.com/promos/BYOB.aspx

Atlanta tidbits

2009-07-25T22:51:00.002-04:00

Furbus: The ultimate party bus

All these restaurants: LOLA, Twist, Shout, GoldFish, Noche, Aja, Prime, Strip and Home belong to one single group: "Here to Serve" restaurants

Sense and Sensibility - adaptations

2009-07-19T16:16:00.009-04:00

Over the weekend, I watched the movie Sense and Sensibility(1995) - adapted from Jane Austin's novel which I once started to read but did not get past few pages. Anyways, I really liked the movie and I might go back and read the novel... The movie reminded me of the Biltmore estate we recently visited w.r.t Norland estate and Barton Park Estate . I am glad I visited the Biltmore estate up in Asheville - because I do normally enjoy the neoclassical movies, but now I can really "see" that the story setting was very much realistic and not just fantasy - with the greenery, the cattle on the farms, the fountain pond, the room bells, the retreat areas, the huge fireplaces, the lake etc..

Also, while watching the movie, my husband quickly realized its the same story as the South Indian Tamil movie Kandukondain Kandukondain(2000). I haven't seen the Tamil movie but I can say its not a true adaptation - but its the same story in a more modern(20th century) Indian setting. The role of Elinor(Emma Thompson) was played by Tabu, the role of Marianne(Kate Winslet) was played by Aishwarya Rai and Margarett was played by Shamili.. Quite an appropriate choice. And Mammotty played Colonel Christopher Brandon, Ajith played Edward Ferras and Abbas played Willoughby. Quite appropriate as well... Have to check out that movie sometime.

What house can you buy at a price of less than $1000 per month mortgage

2009-07-05T16:31:00.011-04:00

There are many factors that come into play when determining how much home you can get for any amount of money. Today, I am going to try to summarize what I know about this, without making it very complicated.

You can buy a house with a mortgage value of $ 181K and pay $ 999.49 per month on mortgage only with these given parameters:
1) interest rate should be: 5.25%
2) 30 year mortgage
3) good credit

That's the math and no one can change that.

A mortgage of 181K means that the house price will be more than 181K. Lets take for example, a house is 200K. If you make a down payment of 19K, you will owe the bank 181K and with an interest rate of 5.25% and you'll pay $999.49 every month. That's math again. But practically, banks may not be willing to offer you 5.25% interest rate for a down payment of 19K on a 200K house. What interest rate you can get will depend on the market competition, your credit scores and how much you are willing to put as down payment. Banks may have many factors when offering you an interest rate. Some banks might require you to put down 20% to give good rate, some may need you to put 20% to even qualify for a mortgage, some may need you to pay some points (lets say "points" are "fees" - for the sake of simplicity) to get their "competitive" rates and so on.. Also, you should consider things like mortgage insurance and double loans. Briefly, mortgage insurance is the insurance you will have to pay to your lender(mortgage issuing bank) and is typically required only when you make a downpayment of less than 20%. It could prove expensive over time to keep paying mortgage insurance. So, if you want to avoid this mortgage insurance and you cannot make a 20% downpayment, you can take another loan or secondary mortgage to help you pay the 20% for your primary mortgage.

Lets say you decide you want to put down 20%, because that gives you an advantage of not having to worry about mortgage insurance, secondary loans etc. Then, to buy a house and pay $1000 every month, the price of the house should be approximately 226.25K, you should make a down payment of 45.25K. Then the mortgage will be 181K, and your monthly payment is 999.49 if the bank offers you 5.25% interest rate.

So, that's the deal. But I don't want to close off the topic there. Because I have to mention a couple of very important things you need to consider when making a financial decision of buying a house.

One is the additional expenditure that you will incur because of owning a house versus renting. Few such expenses are: yearly property taxes, increased heating/cooling bills, if your house is in a community, monthly HOA(Home Owners association) fees, if you have a lawn, equipment and material to maintain the lawn(or additional HOA fees). Other expenses may include things like home insurance (but you may be paying renters insurance already) and security system - which is also what you may be paying even for your rental/apartment or you might opt out of it.

And two, when weighing renting versus buying, always factor the amount of rent you would be paying instead of a mortgage and also the principal part of your mortgage payments. In other words, in the topic of this blog, when I say $1000 per month for mortgage, remember that part of the $1000 per month is interest and part of it is principal. When you pay rent, you are giving away the entire rent amount to the landlord. When you pay mortgage though, the amount you are givng away is not $1000. Its only part of the 1000. The amount you pay every month remains the same (1000) but the interest portion of it that changes over time. Initially, major part of the 1000 will be interest ($800 interest, $200 principal) and gradually, as times goes, the interest decreases and principal increases. The reason its designed like that is because banks want to make sure majority of the interest you owe them is paid off towards the beginning rather than the end (In case you decide to refinance, decide to pay off the mortgage early etc). Anyways, so the principal portion of the monthly payment is subtracted from the mortgage balance - So its like your money - its not going anywhere - the only amount you need to compare with the rent is the interest portion. With the example I gave above (226.25K house, 20% down payment, 5.25% interest rate and $999.49 monthly payment), the total amount you pay for the mortgage in the first year would be: $11993.87. Of that, 9441.67 is interest and 2552.2 is towards principal. So, its like you are paying 9441.67 divided by 12, an average of $787 in rental amount, for this kind of mortgage. If you want the monthly split of interest amount and principal amount, a nifty little tool that I often use is:
http://www.hsh.com/calc-amort.html
On that page, enter your parameters and select "Yes" for "Show the full amortization table?"

Finally, remember that the amount you pay in mortgage interest is tax deductible. I.e. in the above example, $9441.67 is tax deductible.

Its a long blog, but I hope I didn't make it complicated and I hope this helps you.. . I am no financial guru, but feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer.

Public Enemies - review

2009-07-02T23:12:00.008-04:00

Thumbs down from me.

Did I ever enjoy gangster movies? May be not.. None stands out to me as proving otherwise.. But even if I did enjoy gangster movies in general, I am guessing I wouldn't have loved this one..

For one thing, the volume/sound system at the theater we went to was very poor. That was a killer. The trailers I watched at home sounded better.

But anyways, just before we went to the movies, I saw the featurette on IMDB and Johnny Depp was saying something like: "If there was any one time to be a criminal, it was then - Dillinger had awesome arsenal, and most powerful and fastest car V8"

I was expecting it to be a chase behind a powerful and a very smart criminal. (Most times, expectations are what spoil a movie for you)

But it turned out that the movie made it look to me like what prevented Johnny from being caught is the carelessness of the law enforcement officials and not exactly because Dillinger made great plots or because police had less powerful guns. Infact, he steals the guns out of the Jail. Also, there was a very short period of time shown in the movie where he used the fastest car. The police/fbi made enormous effort, but it was small mistakes and oversight that gave an advantage to Dillinger.

Catching him wasn't impossible. Keeping him was shown to be impossible. Dillinger could not be retained in jail after being caught two times. He was chosen to be kept at a mediocre jail because the lady in the court just could not accept the fact that it was not good enough.

Dillinger says he made good contacts when he was in jail at very young age. He escaped from the jail twice with the co-operation of other criminals, but not much was shown on his partners.

Dillinger was very liberal in giving public appearances multiple times without being noticed:
- In a theater where they asked people to watch for Dillinger
- When Billy was being taken by the police on the streets
- Hallways of special investigation Bureau
- Horse races

He may be a powerful man but he was shown as very lucky too..

bing travel

2009-06-02T13:14:00.005-04:00

Long long ago, there used to be Farecast. There also used to be travel.msn.com.

Then something happened. All of a sudden, you go to farecast.com and they started sending you to farecast.live.com. Nothing major changed on the site - just saw additional msn logos. And travel.msn.com showcased orbitz.com and farecast.live.com.

Then today, everything changed. You go to either farecast.com or farecast.live.com - you get sent to: http://www.bing.com/travel/

Travel.msn.com sends you to http://www.bing.com/travel/ as well.

I received an email this morning from farecast saying: Live Search Farecast has joined forces with MSN Travel to become Bing Travel, one of the largest travel destinations on the Web.

Most recent tv commercials that I enjoyed

2009-05-20T15:00:00.002-04:00

I don't get to watch many commercials these days because of the DVR, not that I want to watch commercials - they are boring. I like the advertising in India better - I think its more creative and appealing. Anyways, here are a couple of commercials I enjoyed recently:

1) Joy to my eyes:

2) Lots of laughs:

ING Direct Mortgage Rate Renewal - update

2009-05-11T13:19:00.007-04:00

I wanted to post an update on my original blog on the topic because few things had happened since then and I want to share some wisdom with my readers :). So.. here is my review and my experience with the bank:

We did end up going with a mortgage from ING Direct in Spring of 2008 and we got an interest rate of 5.25%. We had been making additional principal payments whenever we can - no penalties or such for doing that. I kept an eye on the ING direct rates especially because everyone else seemed to be reducing rates or providing incentives to attract potential buyers.

On Jan 28th 2009, I noticed ING Direct reduced their interest rates for the first time. From 5.25% to 5.00%. We got super excited. We called ING Direct and found that the rate renewal fees increased from $500 which was the fees when we started our mortgage to $750. We were some what disappointed. But we did the math and we thought its probably worth it. We could recoup the $750 in about 16 months is what we thought.
Down-sides would be:
1) We will be in a 1 yr fix again. i.e. cant refinance without paying 3% penalty for one MORE year
2) The CAP on how much it can go up every year was 1.25 + LIBOR . Now it has changed to 2.5 + LIBOR
3) The interest rate might go down even further after we renew - which might reduce our recoup period - never know.

Advantages woud be:
1) In 16 months we can recoup.
2) In GA if we refinance with anyone, there's a refinance fee of apprx $1000 on our home - not including closing cost/paper work or anything.
3) The interest rate might go up if we don't renew now - but that's not really possible in this market

We took some time, thought about it and got the application started and sent them the $750. Shortly thereafter, I noticed that ING Direct has reduced their rates even further down to 4.75%. After talking to ING Direct, we were told that we can probably avail the new rate without paying additional $750 because the rate renewal wasnt complete yet. However, they did not guarantee anything and asked us to follow-up shortly because this has to go through multiple departments within ING Direct. Meanwhile, we filled out the new rate documents and sent it to them again. We called ING and informed that new documents are on their way and please do not process that first application.

The day after we mailed the updated application, ING Direct dropped their rates even further to 4.5%- shockingly sweet surprise. We called them again and with their cooperation and flexibility, we were able to get the new 4.75% by paying only $750 one time.

I am sure it wouldn't have been this straight forward with any other bank. And monthly payments fell by about $200 which is a lot of money. On interest alone, I think we are saving more than $100 per month - and most definitely we can recoup the $750 in less than a year.

Overall, a very good experience with ING Direct. Not only are their rates competitive but I will think twice to move away from them even if someone offers a slightly better rate because I trust their customer service and flexibility. Ofcourse I like their rate renewal but we cant assume that will be there for ever.

The only minor disadvantges I see with ING Direct are:
1) Unlike traditional mortgages, you do not have a financial advisor or representative assigned to help you with all your queries or concerns. Each time you call you talk to a different person and it could get frustrating to explain the case with each of them. But I know that they make notes on the account. Donno how detailed the notes are, but there is a log of your previous calls. So, its not too bad

2) If you have to sell your house for any reason or would like to refinance it, within the first year, you will have to pay a 3% pre-payment penalty. Also, if you do a rate renewal, that one year period starts over again. So.. they are making sure you stick with them for atleast 1 year and after every renewal.

3) They do not have 30 year fixed rates and anyone that wants to get a new mortgage with them now has to put 25% down which is a LOT for many buyers. We had to put 20% down when we took our mortgage in Spring 2008. I guess they are just doing thier job and being safe.

Happy Mother's day!

2009-05-10T20:33:00.003-04:00

A tiny gift of information to all the mothers via foxnews.com:

If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she'd rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.

Bad Data Power - No donut for you

2009-04-28T16:26:00.004-04:00

WTH is Data Power's Web GUI so lame??

For instance, there are multiple rules in a multi protocol gateway and you create a new rule, it gets added as a last step. Now, the ONLY way to change order - say I want to bring it up to the top - is to click on the arrow to move it ONE STEP AT A TIME!!! Yeah! Added to that is ~ 10 seconds delay once you click on the button!! Driving me nuts! Cant believe we paid millions of dollars to get this junky interface.

And WTH is this "http://127.0.0.1:63501/CopyUtil.xsl:50: Stack overflow" error. No documentation watsoever!!

BMW - Audi Wars

2009-04-23T23:31:00.005-04:00

Earth day coupon at whole foods

2009-04-23T21:25:00.003-04:00

You can click on the image for original pdf

Perez Hilton and Miss California

2009-04-21T09:37:00.002-04:00

If you haven't already, check out what happened between the two last night:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7381928

What do you all think? I think she did the right thing is saying what she believes in. And its up to the panel of judges to determine what kind of person they want to choose as Miss America. Donald Trump is the owner of Miss Universe Organization that produces Miss America contest. So, who needs to fall on the panel of judges and who gets to fall on the panel is a different question.

But who ever the panel is, if they think Miss America needs to be the one that represents the whole US as a nation, then so be it. But that does not imply that any one with half brains of Perez should give a more diplomatic answer because that's just asking contestants to be phony and not be themselves.

Obama's speach on economy

2009-04-14T22:22:00.007-04:00

I am happy to see that President Obama in sticking to what he said about trying to explain the American people what the administration is doing and be open for feedback. Here is his recent speech on economy (obtained from prospect.org):

It has now been twelve weeks since my administration began. And I think even our critics would agree that at the very least, we’ve been busy. In just under three months, we have responded to an extraordinary set of economic challenges with extraordinary action – action that has been unprecedented in both its scale and its speed.

I know that some have accused us of taking on too much at once. Others believe we haven’t done enough. And many Americans are simply wondering how all of our different programs and policies fit together in a single, overarching strategy that will move this economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity.

So today, I want to step back for a moment and explain our strategy as clearly as I can. I want to talk about what we’ve done, why we’ve done it, and what we have left to do. I want to update you on the progress we’ve made, and be honest about the pitfalls that may lie ahead.

And most of all, I want every American to know that each action we take and each policy we pursue is driven by a larger vision of America’s future – a future where sustained economic growth creates good jobs and rising incomes; a future where prosperity is fueled not by excessive debt, reckless speculation, and fleeing profit, but is instead built by skilled, productive workers; by sound investments that will spread opportunity at home and allow this nation to lead the world in the technologies, innovations, and discoveries that will shape the 21st century. That is the America I see. That is the future I know we can have.

To understand how we get there, we first need to understand how we got here.

Recessions are not uncommon. Markets and economies naturally ebb and flow, as we have seen many times in our history. But this recession is different. This recession was not caused by a normal downturn in the business cycle. It was caused by a perfect storm of irresponsibility and poor decision-making that stretched from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.

As has been widely reported, it started in the housing market. During the course of the decade, the formula for buying a house changed: instead of saving their pennies to buy their dream house, many Americans found they could take out loans that by traditional standards their incomes just could not support. Others were tricked into signing these subprime loans by lenders who were trying to make a quick profit. And the reason these loans were so readily available was that Wall Street saw big profits to be made. Investment banks would buy and package together these questionable mortgages into securities, arguing that by pooling the mortgages, the risks had been reduced. And credit agencies that are supposed to help investors determine the soundness of various investments stamped the securities with their safest rating when they should have been labeled “Buyer Beware.”

No one really knew what the actual value of these securities were, but since the housing market was booming and prices were rising, banks and investors kept buying and selling them, always passing off the risk to someone else for a greater profit without having to take any of the responsibility. Banks took on more debt than they could handle. The government-chartered companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose traditional mandate was to help support traditional mortgages, decided to get in on the action by buying and holding billions of dollars of these securities. AIG, the biggest insurer in the world, decided to make profits by selling billions of dollars of complicated financial instruments that supposedly insured these securities. Everybody was making record profits – except the wealth created was real only on paper. And as the bubble grew, there was almost no accountability or oversight from anyone in Washington.

Then the housing bubble burst. Home prices fell. People began defaulting on their subprime mortgages. The value of all those loans and securities plummeted. Banks and investors couldn’t find anyone to buy them. Greed gave way to fear. Investors pulled their money out of the market. Large financial institutions that didn’t have enough money on hand to pay off all their obligations collapsed. Other banks held on tight to the money they did have and simply stopped lending.

This is when the crisis spread from Wall Street to Main Street. After all, the ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education. It’s how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll. So when banks stopped lending money, businesses started laying off workers. When laid off workers had less money to spend, businesses were forced to lay off even more workers. When people couldn’t get car loans, a bad situation at the auto companies became even worse. When people couldn’t get home loans, the crisis in the housing market only deepened. Because the infected securities were being traded worldwide and other nations also had weak regulations, this recession soon became global. And when other nations can’t afford to buy our goods, it slows our economy even further.

This is the situation we confronted on the day we took office. And so our most urgent task has been to clear away the wreckage, repair the immediate damage to the economy, and do everything we can to prevent a larger collapse. And since the problems we face are all working off each other to feed a vicious economic downturn, we’ve had no choice but to attack all fronts of our economic crisis at once.

The first step was to fight a severe shortage of demand in the economy. The Federal Reserve did this by dramatically lowering interest rates last year in order to boost investment. And my administration and Congress boosted demand by passing the largest recovery plan in our nation’s history. It’s a plan that is already in the process of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. It is putting money directly in people’s pockets with a tax cut for 95% of working families that is now showing up in paychecks across America. And to cushion the blow of this recession, we also provided extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage to Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.

Now, some have argued that this recovery plan is a case of irresponsible government spending; that it is somehow to blame for our long-term deficit projections, and that the federal government should be cutting instead of increasing spending right now. So let me tackle this argument head on.

To begin with, economists on both the left and right agree that the last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending. You see, when this recession began, many families sat around their kitchen table and tried to figure out where they could cut back. So do many businesses. That is a completely responsible and understandable reaction. But if every family in America cuts back, then no one is spending any money, which means there are more layoffs, and the economy gets even worse. That’s why the government has to step in and temporarily boost spending in order to stimulate demand. And that’s exactly what we’re doing right now.

Second of all, I absolutely agree that our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix. But the fact is that this recovery plan represents only a tiny fraction of that long-term deficit. As I will discuss in a moment, the key to dealing with our deficit and debt is to get a handle on out-of-control health care costs – not to stand idly by as the economy goes into free fall.

So the recovery plan has been the first step in confronting this economic crisis. The second step has been to heal our financial system so that credit is once again flowing to the businesses and families who rely on it.

The heart of this financial crisis is that too many banks and other financial institutions simply stopped lending money. In a climate of fear, banks were unable to replace their losses by raising new capital on their own, and they were unwilling to lend the money they did have because they were afraid that no one would pay it back. It is for this reason that the last administration used the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to provide these banks with temporary financial assistance in order to get them lending again.

Now, I don’t agree with some of the ways the TARP program was managed, but I do agree with the broader rationale that we must provide banks with the capital and the confidence necessary to start lending again. That is the purpose of the stress tests that will soon tell us how much additional capital will be needed to support lending at our largest banks. Ideally, these needs will be met by private investors. But where this is not possible, and banks require substantial additional resources from the government, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.

Of course, there are some who argue that the government should stand back and simply let these banks fail – especially since in many cases it was their bad decisions that helped create the crisis in the first place. But whether we like it or not, history has repeatedly shown that when nations do not take early and aggressive action to get credit flowing again, they have crises that last years and years instead of months and months – years of low growth, low job creation, and low investment that cost those nations far more than a course of bold, upfront action. And although there are a lot of Americans who understandably think that government money would be better spent going directly to families and businesses instead of banks – “where’s our bailout?,” they ask – the truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth.

On the other hand, there have been some who don’t dispute that we need to shore up the banking system, but suggest that we have been too timid in how we go about it. They say that the federal government should have already preemptively stepped in and taken over major financial institutions the way that the FDIC currently intervenes in smaller banks, and that our failure to do so is yet another example of Washington coddling Wall Street. So let me be clear – the reason we have not taken this step has nothing to do with any ideological or political judgment we’ve made about government involvement in banks, and it’s certainly not because of any concern we have for the management and shareholders whose actions have helped cause this mess.

Rather, it is because we believe that preemptive government takeovers are likely to end up costing taxpayers even more in the end, and because it is more likely to undermine than to create confidence. Governments should practice the same principle as doctors: first do no harm. So rest assured – we will do whatever is necessary to get credit flowing again, but we will do so in ways that minimize risks to taxpayers and to the broader economy. To that end, in addition to the program to provide capital to the banks, we have launched a plan that will pair government resources with private investment in order to clear away the old loans and securities – the so-called toxic assets – that are also preventing our banks from lending money.

Now, what we’ve also learned during this crisis is that our banks aren’t the only institutions affected by these toxic assets that are clogging the financial system. A.I.G., for example, is not a bank. And yet because it chose to insure trillions of dollars worth of risky assets, its failure could threaten the entire financial system and freeze lending even further. This is why, as frustrating as it is – and I promise you, nobody is more frustrated than me – we’ve had to provide support for A.I.G. It’s also why we need new legal authority so that we have the power to intervene in such financial institutions, just like a bankruptcy court does with businesses that hit hard times, so that we can restructure these businesses in an orderly way that does not induce panic – and can restructure inappropriate bonus contracts without creating a perception that government can just change compensation rules on a whim.

This is also why we’re moving aggressively to unfreeze markets and jumpstart lending outside the banking system, where more than half of all lending in America actually takes place. To do this, we’ve started a program that will increase guarantees for small business loans and unlock the market for auto loans and student loans. And to stabilize the housing market, we’ve launched a plan that will save up to four million responsible homeowners from foreclosure and help many millions more re-finance.

In a few weeks, we will also reassess the state of Chrysler and General Motors, two companies with an important place in our history and a large footprint in our economy – but two companies that have also fallen on hard times.

Late last year, the companies were given transitional loans by the previous administration to tide them over as they worked to develop viable business plans. But the plans they developed fell short, and so we have given them some additional time to work these complex issues through. We owed that, not to the executives whose bad bets contributed to the weakening of their companies, but to the hundreds of thousands of workers whose livelihoods hang in the balance.

It is our fervent hope that in the coming weeks, Chrysler will find a viable business partner and that GM will develop a business plan that will put it on a path to profitability without endless support from the American taxpayer. In the meantime, we are taking steps to spur demand for American cars and provide relief to autoworkers and their communities. And we will continue to reaffirm this nation’s commitment to a 21st century American auto industry that creates new jobs and builds the fuel-efficient cars and trucks that will carry us toward a clean energy future.

Finally, to coordinate a global response to this global recession, I went to the meeting of the G20 nations in London the other week. Each nation has undertaken significant stimulus to spur demand. All agreed to pursue tougher regulatory reforms. We also agreed to triple the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund, an international financial institution supported by all the major economies, and provide direct assistance to developing nations and vulnerable populations – because America’s success depends on whether other nations have the ability to buy what we sell. We pledged to avoid the trade barriers and protectionism that hurts us all in the end. And we decided to meet again in the fall to gauge our progress and take additional steps if necessary.

So all of these actions – the Recovery Act, the bank capitalization program, the housing plan, the strengthening of the non-bank credit market, the auto plan, and our work at the G20 – have been necessary pieces of the recovery puzzle. They have been designed to increase aggregate demand, get credit flowing again to families and businesses, and help them ride out the storm. And taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress. Because of our recovery plan, schools and police departments have cancelled planned layoffs. Clean energy companies and construction companies are re-hiring workers to build everything from energy efficient windows to new roads and highways. Our housing plan has helped lead to a spike in the number of homeowners who are taking advantage of historically-low mortgage rates by refinancing, which is like putting a $2,000 tax cut in your in pocket. Our program to support the market for auto loans and student loans has started to unfreeze this market and securitize more of this lending in the last few weeks. And small businesses are seeing a jump in loan activity for the first time in months.

This is all welcome and encouraging news, but it does not mean that hard times are over. 2009 will continue to be a difficult year for America’s economy. The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain before it ends. The market will continue to rise and fall. Credit is still not flowing nearly as easily as it should. The process for restructuring AIG and the auto companies will involve difficult and sometimes unpopular choices. All of this means that there is much more work to be done. And all of this means that you can continue to expect an unrelenting, unyielding, day-by-day effort from this administration to fight for economic recovery on all fronts.

But even as we continue to clear away the wreckage and address the immediate crisis, it is my firm belief that our next task is to make sure such a crisis never happens again. Even as we clean up balance sheets and get credit flowing; even as people start spending and business start hiring – we have to realize that we cannot go back to the bubble and bust economy that led us to this point.

It is simply not sustainable to have a 21st century financial system that is governed by 20th century rules and regulations that allowed the recklessness of a few to threaten the entire economy. It is not sustainable to have an economy where in one year, 40% of our corporate profits came from a financial sector that was based too much on inflated home prices, maxed out credit cards, overleveraged banks and overvalued assets; or an economy where the incomes of the top 1% have skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their income decline by nearly $2,000.

For even as too many were chasing ever-bigger bonuses and short-term profits over the last decade, we continued to neglect the long-term threats to our prosperity: the crushing burden that the rising cost of health care is placing on families and businesses; the failure of our education system to prepare our workers for a new age; the progress that other nations are making on clean energy industries and technologies while we remain addicted to foreign oil; the growing debt that we’re passing on to our children. And even after we emerge from the current recession, these challenges will still represent major obstacles that stand in the way of our success in the 21st century.

There is a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that tells the story of two men. The first built his house on a pile of sand, and it was destroyed as soon as the storm hit. But the second is known as the wise man, for when “…the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house…it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”

We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity – a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest; where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.

It’s a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation; new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive; new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. That is the new foundation we must build. That must be our future – and my Administration’s policies are designed to achieve that future.

The first step we will take to build this foundation is to reform the outdated rules and regulations that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place. It is time to lay down tough new rules of the road for Wall Street to ensure that we never find ourselves here again. Rules that punish short-cuts and abuse. Rules that tie someone’s pay to their actual job performance. Rules that protect typical American families when they buy a home, get a credit card or invest in a 401k. We have already begun to work with Congress to shape this new regulatory framework – and I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before the year is out.

The second pillar of this new foundation is an education system that finally prepares our workers for a 21st century economy. In the 20th century, the GI Bill sent a generation to college, and for decades, we led the world in education and economic growth. But in this new economy, we trail the world’s leaders in graduation rates and achievement. That is why we have set a goal that will greatly enhance our ability to compete for the high-wage, high-tech jobs of the 21st century: by 2020, America will once more have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

To meet that goal, we have already dramatically expanded early childhood education. We are investing in innovative programs that have proven to help schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. We are creating new rewards tied to teacher performance and new pathways for advancement. I have asked every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training, and we have provided tax credits to make a college education more affordable for every American.

The third pillar of this new foundation is to harness the renewable energy that can create millions of new jobs and new industries. We all know that the country that harnesses this energy will lead the 21st century. Yet we have allowed other countries to outpace us on this race to the future.

Well, I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders. It is time for America to lead again.

The investments we made in the Recovery Act will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. And we are putting Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions on our energy bills and grow our economy at the same time.

But the only way to truly spark this transformation is through a gradual, market-based cap on carbon pollution, so that clean energy is the profitable kind of energy. Some have argued that we shouldn’t attempt such a transition until the economy recovers, and they are right that we have to take the costs of transition into account. But we can no longer delay putting a framework for a clean energy economy in place. If businesses and entrepreneurs know today that we are closing this carbon pollution loophole, they will start investing in clean energy now. And pretty soon, we’ll see more companies constructing solar panels, and workers building wind turbines, and car companies manufacturing fuel-efficient cars. Investors will put some money into a new energy technology, and a small business will open to start selling it. That’s how we can grow this economy, enhance our security, and protect our planet at the same time.

The fourth pillar of the new foundation is a 21st century health care system where families, businesses, and government budgets aren’t dragged down by skyrocketing insurance premiums.

One and a half million Americans could lose their homes this year just because of a medical crisis. Major American corporations are struggling to compete with their foreign counterparts, and small businesses are closing their doors. We cannot allow the cost of health care to strangle our economy any longer.

That’s why our Recovery Act will invest in electronic health records with strict privacy standards that will save money and lives. We’ve also made the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that is one of the best ways to keep costs under control. And included in the budgets that just passed Congress is an historic commitment to reform that will finally make quality health care affordable for every American. So I look forward to working with both parties in Congress to make this reform a reality in the coming months.

Fixing our health care system will certainly require resources, but in my budget, we’ve made a commitment to fully pay for reform without increasing the deficit, and we’ve identified specific savings that will make the health care system more efficient and reduce costs for us all.

In fact, we have undertaken an unprecedented effort to find this kind of savings in every corner of the budget, because the final pillar in building our new foundation is restoring fiscal discipline once this economy recovers. Already, we have identified two trillion dollars in deficit-reductions over the next decade. We have announced procurement reform that will greatly reduce no-bid contracts and save the government $40 billion. Secretary Gates recently announced a courageous set of reforms that go right at the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and cost overruns that have bloated our defense budget without making America safer. We will end education programs that don’t work, and root out waste, fraud, and abuse in our Medicare program.

Altogether, this budget will reduce discretionary spending for domestic programs as share of the economy by more than 10% over the next decade to the lowest level since we began keeping records nearly half a century ago. And as we continue to go through the federal budget line by line, we will be announcing additional savings, secured by eliminating and consolidating programs we don’t need so that we can make room for the things we do need.

Now, I realize that for some, this isn’t enough. I know there is a criticism out there that my administration has somehow been spending with reckless abandon, pushing a liberal social agenda while mortgaging our children’s future.

Well let me make three points.

First, as I said earlier, the worst thing that we could do in a recession this severe is to try to cut government spending at the same time as families and businesses around the world are cutting back on their spending. So as serious as our deficit and debt problems are – and they are very serious – major efforts to deal with them have to focus on the medium and long-term budget picture.

Second, in tackling the deficit issue, we simply cannot sacrifice the long-term investments that we so desperately need to generate long-term prosperity. Just as a cash-strapped family may cut back on luxuries but will insist on spending money to get their children through college, so we as a country have to make current choices with an eye on the future. If we don’t invest now in renewable energy or a skilled workforce or a more affordable health care system, this economy simply won’t grow at the pace it needs to in two or five or ten years down the road. If we don’t lay this new foundation, it won’t be long before we are right back where we are today. And I can assure you that chronically slow growth will not help our long-term budget situation.

Third, the problem with our deficit and debt is not new. It has been building dramatically over the past eight years, largely because big tax cuts combined with increased spending on two wars and the increased costs of government health care programs. This structural gap in our budget, between the amount of money coming in and the amount going out, will only get worse as Baby Boomers age, and will in fact lead us down an unsustainable path. But let’s not kid ourselves and suggest that we can do it by trimming a few earmarks or cutting the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts. Along with defense and interest on the national debt, the biggest costs in our budget are entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that get more and more expensive every year. So if we want to get serious about fiscal discipline – and I do – then we are going to not only have to trim waste out of our discretionary budget, a process we have already begun – but we will also have to get serious about entitlement reform.

Nothing will be more important to this goal than passing health care reform that brings down costs across the system, including in Medicare and Medicaid. Make no mistake: health care reform is entitlement reform. That’s not just my opinion – that was the conclusion of a wide range of participants at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit we held at the White House in February, and that’s one of the reasons why I firmly believe we need to get health care reform done this year.

Once we tackle rising health care costs, we must also work to put Social Security on firmer footing. It is time for both parties to come together and find a way to keep the promise of a sound retirement for future generations. And we should restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by shutting down corporate loopholes and ensuring that everyone pays what they owe.

All of these efforts will require tough choices and compromises. But the difficulties can’t serve as an excuse for inaction. Not anymore.

This brings up one final point I’d like to make today. I’ve talked a lot about the fundamental weakness in our economy that led us to this day of reckoning. But we also arrived here because of a fundamental weakness in our political system.

For too long, too many in Washington put off hard decisions for some other time on some other day. There’s been a tendency to score political points instead of rolling up sleeves to solve real problems. There is also an impatience that characterizes this town – an attention span that has only grown shorter with the twenty-four hour news cycle, and insists on instant gratification in the form of immediate results or higher poll numbers. When a crisis hits, there’s all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died away and the media coverage has moved on, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way.

This can’t be one of those times. The challenges are too great. The stakes are too high. I know how difficult it is for Members of Congress in both parties to grapple with some of the big decisions we face right now. It’s more than most congresses and most presidents have to deal with in a lifetime.

But we have been called to govern in extraordinary times. And that requires an extraordinary sense of responsibility – to ourselves, to the men and women who sent us here, and to the many generations whose lives will be affected for good or for ill because of what we do here.

There is no doubt that times are still tough. By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope. And beyond that, way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America’s future that is far different than our troubled economic past. It’s an America teeming with new industry and commerce; humming with new energy and discoveries that light the world once more. A place where anyone from anywhere with a good idea or the will to work can live the dream they’ve heard so much about.

It is that house upon the rock. Proud, sturdy, and unwavering in the face of the greatest storm. We will not finish it in one year or even many, but if we use this moment to lay that new foundation; if we come together and begin the hard work of rebuilding; if we persist and persevere against the disappointments and setbacks that will surely lie ahead, then I have no doubt that this house will stand and the dream of our founders will live on in our time. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Schools moving to 4 day week

2009-04-14T20:00:00.006-04:00

Schools around US are exploring the option of moving from a 5 day week to a 4 day week in order to cut costs. Cutting down the education time of growing children shows how bad the economy really is. I think its not the place to save any money. It is not just the time for their classes that will be cut, but also the time kids get to spend with each other and nourish their interests. And for working parents, they need to find someway to have their kids occupied and taken care of.

Its a debatable subject especially with little research available on the subject, but atleast if they increase the length of the school day, not cutting the week time dramatically, that would be good.

Even you Jay?

2009-04-05T01:01:00.003-04:00

I love you Jay Leno, but you've disappointed me.. When ET called her octomom, I didn't care much but Jay.... she has a name: Nadya Suleman. Why cant these people seem to respect people for who they are. One other time I had similar feeling was when people such as Rudy Giuliani used the word "community organizer" as though it was derogatory. Its a shame.

Presidential news conference on TV

2009-03-26T21:21:00.010-04:00

Which interface do you like the best? Some of my pictures are blurry but I think you get a good idea of how the interface looks like.. So, let me know which one you like best

CBS
CNNCNBCabc MSNBCFOX NEWS

Pussy Cat Dolls with AR Rahman

2009-03-14T08:49:00.002-04:00

Click play to listen

Human Memory

2009-03-09T10:38:00.017-04:00

Human memory is susceptible to many factors, sometimes very subtle, but quite powerful. It can easily trick you into strongly believing something that is not true.
Check out this segment from 60 minutes show on CBS last Sunday.

This one is specifically about eye witness memory. But put this in perspective for a normal person's day to day life. Depending on when or how you see something, how your peers perceive things and such, it is quite possible that your memory could trick you into things that are not true but might seems obvious. But is there something you can do to avoid it? Well, It IS challenging to take your own memory with a grain of salt. It might help to remember that first impressions may not be the right impressions.

Secret Ingredient

2009-03-06T22:26:00.004-05:00

Guess whats the common raw material used in preparing JellO, Mashmellows and Gummy Bears?

Check the comments!

Homestead Exemption

2009-03-05T13:07:00.004-05:00

All you need to know is... If you own a home and never filed for it before, file for the homestead Exemption before March 1st, it will save you lots of $$ in Property taxes. Since March 1st has past and gone this year.. all you can do now is wait until next year and take time to excuse your memory for not saving the money you could have.

Its snowing in Atlanta

2009-03-01T21:41:00.003-05:00

And I made a snowman.

US "indebted" to China and Japan

2009-02-24T10:39:00.005-05:00

In one of my previous posts, I posed a rhetorical question as to why we, as a country, think we can borrow unlimited trillions of dollars for as long as we wish. And myself and my husband talked about his over the weekend too. This morning my husband pointed me to an article that talks about the exact same topic. Here is a segment from that article:

Can we continue to borrow and borrow and borrow? Yes, but eventually we'll have to pay higher interest rates to continue to attract global savings, mostly from the Chinese and Japanese. But that's not anytime soon. The Chinese and Japanese are not going to yank their money out of Treasury bills because the slump is worldwide and T-bills are about the best and safest place to park savings. Besides, the Chinese don't want the dollar to plunge. They'd be stuck with a lot of paper worth far less than they got it for, and their exports would be in even worse shape than now.

Well, okay. But do the Chinese and Japanese have no threshold? Will they never have a threshold? We just have to hope they wont..

Saint Valentine wrote me some poetry

2009-02-16T14:50:00.006-05:00

As I wrote in my blog last year around this time, every year for the Valentines day at my work place, we all get an email from Saint Valentine with cute poetry clues to a hidden treasure - one clue per day until one of us finds the treasure. This year, I haven't seen an email until Feb 13. So, I sent an email to our big boss Bryson asking him whats up. On Monday afternoon we see the email from St. Valentine. I wondered if my email prompted it. Then, shortly after we all got the clue, I got a special delivery email that made me happy:

Malle,

This fun and game,
it is my joy;
Despite the fact,
the Saint is coy.
You wrote the Chief,
he wrote to me;
and perhaps a special clue,
I'll let you see.

The prize is near,
the heights reach heaven;
But to us all,
we all call it Seven.

S.V.

And here's the original clue to all the group:

In plain sight I might be,
or hidden near a place of glee;
This first clue won't give you much,
except explain you need to touch.
The possibilities endless, you might say
until a clue arrives, another day.

Boss

2009-02-13T15:57:00.004-05:00

The phrase "My Boss" typically doesn't end in a positive way. But today, I am thinking of all the bosses I ever had and I consider myself pretty lucky.

Heinz Baumann was my boss at my very "first" serious job. He was my manager when I was an intern at Autodesk. Before I started at Autodesk, my experience working for professors hasn't been very rewarding. I was intimidated by fears as to what the real world professional world would be like. But I was very pleased. I was amazed at how open they were at Autodesk in nurturing my interests and allowing me to develop my skills on my terms. My mentor at Autodesk, Montgomery Graf had been very professional and helpful - available anytime for any question. That entire team of smart skillful people (Ram Mummidi, Raj etc) have inspired me a lot and overall I had a very good start.

After that, I had many bosses. But my favorites are: Venu Thota, Ron Walkup, Ted Maloney, Cameron Stokes and Jeevan Nomula.

I cannot say I never complained about any of my bosses but I think I've been blessed. It was never bad at all. Most importantly, I can say I've learned a lot from them. Sometimes its the perfect combo of technical and soft skills they showed that impress me and sometimes its their hardwork and persistence. Definitely being a boss is an ART and not everyone can master it. Hats off to all the bosses that make people like us happy and all the rest of them, I hope they will slowly but finally understand that being bossy is not all it takes to be a boss.

Nutmeg

2009-02-12T12:30:00.006-05:00

Rachel Ray uses nutmeg in most of her greens and ground meat recipes. I did try some of her recipes which I enjoy and hence I have nutmeg at home. Last night I made spaghetti and meatballs with veggie crumbles. It came out okay.. it was along the lines of Hakka Noodles that I made earlier but I think I liked my Hakka noodles better. Anyway.. I brought some of the spaghetti for lunch today and somehow I got curious about one of the spices that I used - nutmeg.

To me, Nutmeg smells very much like betel nut. I even wondered if it was the same. Back in India where I am from, they use Betel nut along with betel leaves and other ingredients to prepare a "small pouch" for eating which they call "pan". Pan is consumed as a tradition and for pleasure especially after meals at weddings and festive occasions. I never enjoyed Pan and I also knew it was not very good for health. I heard that Betel Leaf is good for you but not the betel nut.

Anyways, this afternoon during lunch I looked up about Nutmeg and I realized not only was it considered a delicacy and pricey spice in the ancient times, but is also often compared to stimulating drugs that make you high!!! Yeah... it can be poisonous, cause psychiatric problems.. Nutmeg when consumed in large quantities can even be fatal! Okay what quantity is considered "large" ? 5 tea spoons - not TABLE spoons - 5 TEA SPOONS!!

What?? Yeah... don't you think it should be taken off the shelves?? Well, I think I might have used not more than a tea spoon of nutmeg powder for about 4 - 5 servings in the past, but I'll be wary going forward!

Rachel Ray keeps saying "just a little bit of Nutmeg - a little goes a long way" But I didn't know how long :)

Pilot C.B. "Sully" Sullenberger - a hero

2009-02-09T09:31:00.003-05:00

Not many stories these days have a happy ending. But this one did, and he's a hero

resolutions overdue

2009-02-04T09:30:00.002-05:00

Oh I never said what my New year resolution is...

I am bad at typing. I got myself so addicted to the luxury of the new age tools that prompt you, spell-check you whenever you make a typo, that I have now become a person who make tons of spelling mistakes each and every day. So, my new year's resolution is to try and make less spelling mistakes. I still need to figure out a way to quantify the improvement or deterioration but I'll have to keep trying. Well, if I make NO typos by the end of the year then, there's "great" improvement. But, is that possible? We'll see.

Rafa wins australian open 2009

2009-02-01T07:38:00.000-05:00

Rafa wins a well deserved Championship again. I woke up to watch the end of 5th set and the ceremony was emotional. I felt for Federer. He really needed this one. But I see all those shots by Nadal.. and.. wow.. how does one do that? The strength, the power and the persistence.. It is amazing. This kid deserves it!

Yes he did

2009-01-23T16:19:00.001-05:00

http://www.theagitator.com/2009/01/22/yes-he-did/

Obama's cabinet

2009-01-14T22:13:00.001-05:00

Check out Obama's cabinet here on Wall Street Journal.

Saving the incapable

2008-12-07T12:01:00.006-05:00

So, Wallstreet failed by betting on home prices going up. And the US government bailed them out. Shortly after that, the auto industry is failing because they have been building bad products and losing consumers and they are asking for a bailout too. If and when they are granted a bail out, what are they going to do: Definitely cut some jobs and probably do "some"thing more..

For people who are saying, "When you bailed out Wallstreet by giving them so much ($700+ Bil), why not bail out auto industry by giving them only so much ($34 Bil) ?", I ask, why not bail out all the poor performers and stupids of this country and hope that the smarter and more organized will survive too? Why pay for wind energy or solar or other such minor projects when we have big fat cars to keep afloat? Oh you think we can do that and this as well as everything else we feel like too? Oh yeah, you think we have countries willing to loan us unlimited trillions of $$ for as long as we wish.. Why do you think they would do that?

Letter from Michael Moore

2008-12-07T11:59:00.001-05:00

Here is a letter from Michael Moore distributed via his mailing list:

Saving the Big 3 for You and Me ...a message from Michael Moore

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Friends,

I drive an American car. It's a Chrysler. That's not an endorsement. It's more like a cry for pity. And now for a decades-old story, retold ad infinitum by tens of millions of Americans, a third of whom have had to desert their country to simply find a damn way to get to work in something that won't break down:

My Chrysler is four years old. I bought it because of its smooth and comfortable ride. Daimler-Benz owned the company then and had the good grace to place the Chrysler chassis on a Mercedes axle and, man, was that a sweet ride!

When it would start.

More than a dozen times in these years, the car has simply died. Batteries have been replaced, but that wasn't the problem. My dad drives the same model. His car has died many times, too. Just won't start, for no reason at all.

A few weeks ago, I took my Chrysler in to the Chrysler dealer here in northern Michigan -- and the latest fixes cost me $1,400. The next day, the vehicle wouldn't start. When I got it going, the brake warning light came on. And on and on.

You might assume from this that I couldn't give a rat's ass about these miserably inept crapmobile makers down the road in Detroit city. But I do care. I care about the millions whose lives and livelihoods depend on these car companies. I care about the security and defense of this country because the world is running out of oil -- and when it runs out, the calamity and collapse that will take place will make the current recession/depression look like a Tommy Tune musical.

And I care about what happens with the Big 3 because they are more responsible than almost anyone for the destruction of our fragile atmosphere and the daily melting of our polar ice caps.

Congress must save the industrial infrastructure that these companies control and the jobs they create. And it must save the world from the internal combustion engine. This great, vast manufacturing network can redeem itself by building mass transit and electric/hybrid cars, and the kind of transportation we need for the 21st century.

And Congress must do all this by NOT giving GM, Ford and Chrysler the $34 billion they are asking for in "loans" (a few days ago they only wanted $25 billion; that's how stupid they are -- they don't even know how much they really need to make this month's payroll. If you or I tried to get a loan from the bank this way, not only would we be thrown out on our ear, the bank would place us on some sort of credit rating blacklist).

Two weeks ago, the CEOs of the Big 3 were tarred and feathered before a Congressional committee who sneered at them in a way far different than when the heads of the financial industry showed up two months earlier. At that time, the politicians tripped over each other in their swoon for Wall Street and its Ponzi schemers who had concocted Byzantine ways to bet other people's money on unregulated credit default swaps, known in the common vernacular as unicorns and fairies.

But the Detroit boys were from the Midwest, the Rust (yuk!) Belt, where they made real things that consumers needed and could touch and buy, and that continually recycled money into the economy (shocking!), produced unions that created the middle class, and fixed my teeth for free when I was ten.

For all of that, the auto heads had to sit there in November and be ridiculed about how they traveled to D.C. Yes, they flew on their corporate jets, just like the bankers and Wall Street thieves did in October. But, hey, THAT was OK! They're the Masters of the Universe! Nothing but the best chariots for Big Finance as they set about to loot our nation's treasury.

Of course, the auto magnates used be the Masters who ruled the world. They were the pulsating hub that all other industries -- steel, oil, cement contractors -- served. Fifty-five years ago, the president of GM sat on that same Capitol Hill and bluntly told Congress, what's good for General Motors is good for the country. Because, you see, in their minds, GM WAS the country.

What a long, sad fall from grace we witnessed on November 19th when the three blind mice had their knuckles slapped and then were sent back home to write an essay called, "Why You Should Give Me Billions of Dollars of Free Cash." They were also asked if they would work for a dollar a year. Take that! What a big, brave Congress they are! Requesting indentured servitude from (still) three of the most powerful men in the world. This from a spineless body that won't dare stand up to a disgraced president nor turn down a single funding request for a war that neither they nor the American public support. Amazing.

Let me just state the obvious: Every single dollar Congress gives these three companies will be flushed right down the toilet. There is nothing the management teams of the Big 3 are going to do to convince people to go out during a recession and buy their big, gas-guzzling, inferior products. Just forget it. And, as sure as I am that the Ford family-owned Detroit Lions are not going to the Super Bowl -- ever -- I can guarantee you, after they burn through this $34 billion, they'll be back for another $34 billion next summer.

So what to do? Members of Congress, here's what I propose:

1. Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big 3 are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.

2. You could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion. Why should we give GM $18 billion or $25 billion or anything? Take the money and buy the company! (You're going to demand collateral anyway if you give them the "loan," and because we know they will default on that loan, you're going to own the company in the end as it is. So why wait? Just buy them out now.)

3. None of us want government officials running a car company, but there are some very smart transportation geniuses who could be hired to do this. We need a Marshall Plan to switch us off oil-dependent vehicles and get us into the 21st century.

This proposal is not radical or rocket science. It just takes one of the smartest people ever to run for the presidency to pull it off. What I'm proposing has worked before. The national rail system was in shambles in the '70s. The government took it over. A decade later it was turning a profit, so the government returned it to private/public hands, and got a couple billion dollars put back in the treasury.

This proposal will save our industrial infrastructure -- and millions of jobs. More importantly, it will create millions more. It literally could pull us out of this recession.

In contrast, yesterday General Motors presented its restructuring proposal to Congress. They promised, if Congress gave them $18 billion now, they would, in turn, eliminate around 20,000 jobs. You read that right. We give them billions so they can throw more Americans out of work. That's been their Big Idea for the last 30 years -- layoff thousands in order to protect profits. But no one ever stopped to ask this question: If you throw everyone out of work, who's going to have the money to go out and buy a car?

These idiots don't deserve a dime. Fire all of them, and take over the industry for the good of the workers, the country and the planet.

What's good for General Motors IS good for the country. Once the country is calling the shots.

Yours,
Michael Moore

Bailout email thread

2008-11-21T10:01:00.007-05:00

I had the below email conversation with a couple of friends and want to post it for who ever might be interested.

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 9:51 PM, Malleswari Akkineni wrote:
1) Chuck invested in the donkey (bad investment - its gonna die - he didn't know - bad judgement)
2) Donkey died
3) Chuck tried to sell the donkey to people to protect himself against the loss
4) People saved him because they thought donkey is worth the bet ( they gave money - again bad judgement)
5) There's no way anyone is going to profit out of it except Chuck (the donkey is worthless which ppl couldn't realize)
------------------------------

1) Wallstreet invested in the banks - they are gonna go bankrupt - wallstreet was foolish to invest in the banks
2) Banks went into bankruptcy
3) Wallstreet tried to save itself by asking government(our money) to save it, falling on its knees(Henry Paulson)
4) Government(peoples representatives) saved Walstreet thinking its BIG
5) Theres no way anyones going to benefit out of this except Walstreet
------------------------------
Thats the analogy

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 6:49 PM, ~~hidden2~~ <~~hidden2~~@gmail.com> wrote:

very smart!. we should use this idea to earn some easy bucks :)
but, howz this relate to bailout. who bailed out who?

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 5:03 PM, ~~hidden1~~ <~~hidden1~~@gmail.com> wrote:
How The Bailout Works. . . .

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a Donkey from a farmer for $100.00.

Thefarmer agreed to deliver the Donkey the next day.

The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad News, the donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said, 'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him?

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.00.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Chuck now works for Goldman Sachs

Janet Napolitano

2008-11-20T10:25:00.006-05:00

This is Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona who will be the secretary of Homeland Security in Barak Obama's administration.

Rahm Emmanuel

2008-11-12T15:39:00.004-05:00

This is Rahm Emmanuel, who is going to be the White House Chief of staff for Barak Obama

David Plouffe

2008-11-11T20:52:00.004-05:00

The person in this picture is David Plouffe who was the campaign Manager for Obama's presidential campaign 2008.

David Axelrod

2008-11-06T20:20:00.007-05:00

The person in this picture is David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Obama's presidential campaign 2008. Click on the picture for the source article.

Congratulations to Obama - The next president of United states

2008-11-05T20:53:00.013-05:00

Source of pictures: boston.com

Who is the real Sarah Palin

2008-10-10T10:09:00.008-04:00

So, she's saying "Who is the real Barak Obama" and shes saying that about a person who's been grilled and drilled for 16 months, who talked and talked and talked about his policies, his beliefs his personal life, his motives and is never hesitant to answer questions. They vetted him of all they can. He won against Hillary Clinton. Is there anything missing you want to know? Ask him and he will answer coz he's not like you. And now she comes and says, who's the real Barak.

She, who didn't even fight for the role she is in, whom the American people have seen for just a few weeks now ( BTW that's an excuse for her for few "other" things in debates - that she is only a few weeks into all of this) is questioning who the real Barak is.

Even the most secretive VPs in US history(Dick Cheney) gave more interviews and talked more to public than her. Even before she's elected the VP, she's already shut down the media and she just preaches. The only one or two interviews she gave she totally s****d up. And shes coming out on her own terms to made bad propaganda, rumors saying he's a domestic terrorist. Its disgusting how low they can go to do anything to win the election.

The real question here should be "Who is the real Sarah Plain"?

Who educated these people

2008-10-05T21:25:00.001-04:00

Palin's flow chart

2008-10-03T23:06:00.001-04:00

John McCain at the Des Moines Register Editorial Board

2008-10-02T13:30:00.001-04:00

Palin and Mccain on Pakistan

2008-10-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, Katie Couric has come a long way since a couple of years ago. My opinion on her did change since the last time I wrote on her. I think she has even ramped up since they blamed media on not grilling the government as much as they should have on the Iraq war. Katie is still young(not so much but still- she has a lot of career time ahead of her). I think she will be big going into the future. Anyways, going back to politics, do check this out:

Palin - Russia's Proximity To Alaska Makes Me Experienced

2008-10-02T11:19:00.002-04:00

Biden - Palin

2008-10-01T22:03:00.001-04:00

The Veeps debate is soon approaching but here is something you can check out yourself to compare:

Location of heart

2008-09-22T19:38:00.000-04:00

Wonder where your heart is actually located? If its has been years since you read your biology book, check this out. The heart is not entirely on the left half of your chest.

And, read this to brush up your basics on heart attacks, how to identify and quickly respond to a suspected stroke/heart attack/cardiac arrest.

my political inclination

2008-09-21T10:34:00.000-04:00

You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(33% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

McCain is a liar

2008-09-15T16:35:00.001-04:00

Check this out:

http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Count_the_Lies

McCain ? No way!

2008-08-28T21:16:00.000-04:00

As much as an Indian I am, I live in Unites States. I love my country India and I also take pride in the decision I made to move to this great nation(USA) in search of quality education, a career of choice and lifestyle of choice. I didn't realize the rapid deterioration of the country since 2001 when I moved here, when I didn't really know the differences between the republican and the democratic parties, until it became too clear to go unnoticed few years ago. I have never been a political savvy but thanks to the people around me and the technology that makes it easy to gather the information I need, I think I have a decent insight into whats going on around here.

Today, I want to say: I will go back to my country if McCain wins this election. When they say US invaded Iraq and thousands of innocent civilians died for no fault of theirs, I take it to heart. Even though I am not a citizen of the US, even though I dont have the right to vote, it feels like: We went to war and we killed innocent people, I am part of this. I dont want to be part of this. I have little I can do to change this, but I know its only going to get worse if McCain comes to power, with his wonderfully naive foreign policies, with his strategies in Iraq, with his beliefs in herosim through war, with his tax cuts to the rich, oh well the list goes on..

And if after all what has been happening, after listening to McCain, if this country ends up electing him for President, like I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I will put it down for myself that republicans are the smarter race and I don't want to stay in this country which proves that "Being good and doing right will fail you, take you nowhere. Being wrong but smart and tactical and manipulative, you can get away, you can win".

I am hoping Obama-Biden make it to the White House this time, thus changing the path of this country to the future and thus proving there can only be a certain limit for fraud and immorality to survive.

McCain

2008-08-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

McCain's campaign(acting like children) just released this ad today. Check it out. So...

Will McCain simply choose who ever won the most number of votes among the republican candidates? Is that the plain dumb strategy he will implement? Lets wait and see. If not, it implies his feelings were hurt by the truth said. We'll wait for the moment.

Oh and check out the comment by Hillary Rodham Clinton herself

hush hush ?

2008-08-22T14:57:00.001-04:00

I so agree with her:

http://sunshinenjoy.blogspot.com/2008/08/hush-hush.html

One time I even got this from a "friend" who probably doesn't know me at all. He said: "Did you already tell it to eveyone? OH.. I don't mean to say you are a gossip queen, but just asking..."

I was like whatever.... first off, if someone is so important to you, then why don't you share your news with them? Then, if you don't tell them, don't expect them to not be hurt and don't act as if they are the first person you would share your stuff with but because of this one very "genuine" reason, you couldn't tell them. And don't tell it to other people who can't keep your secrets away from your more important friends.. Oh these people...

Stop the guess work...

2008-08-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

Biden? Kathleen? Obama used "he" proverb not "she" :)

Why does it seem like no one wants to wait???

baingan ka bharta recipe

2008-07-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

Never posted any of my recipes but I made this dish yesterday which I enjoyed making and want to make a record of it on my blog. So, here it goes, with no fancy pictures though:

1) Take 3 eggplants, make a couple of 1 to 2 inch slits all around the eggplant and pierce/place sliced garlic in the slits.
2) Rub oil all around the eggplants and place them on the oven grill directly
3) Bake them at 450 degrees in oven for about 1 hour until the skin gets all wrinkly.
4) Make sure to place foil underneath at the bottom of the oven to make sure the juices don't drop and splash all over
5) While your eggplant bakes, mince 2 big garlic pods, 1/2 inch ginger and 4 green chillis to tiny pieces
6) Heat 3-4 tables spoons oil in a pan and when hot, add green chillis, ginger and garlic, let fry for 30 secs
7) Add 1 medium size onion finely chopped and fry until transparent.
8) Add 1 table spoon of ginger garlic paste(more of garlic I'd prefer) and continue to fry until onion starts to turn little brown.
9) Add 2 chopped tomatoes and continue to fry until mushy
10) Once your eggplant is done, let it cool down for 10 minutes and peel off the skin with hand. Make sure you place your eggplants in a tray or container with edge while doing this as water might leak out of it
11) Once peeled, gently chop the interior. (It will mash to paste anyways by the time your recipe is done). Watch out for leaking water.
12) Add this eggplant to the pan, 1/2 cup green peas and salt and cook for few minutes.
13) Add 1 table spoon baingan bharta masala and continue to cook until done for about 10 minutes
15) Garnish with 1/2 cup cilantro.
16) Enjoy with naan/chapati/rice :)

Try it out and send me your comments!

sun signs

2008-07-03T14:43:00.000-04:00

If you like reading about sun signs, here is a nice website I ran into:

http://mizian.com.ne.kr/englishwiz/library/names/zodiac/contents.htm

About the two suns signs I care most about:

Capricorn man:

Capricorns pretend they can live without compliments, and the way they behave when they get one is pretty convincing proof. Did you ever say something nice to your Capricorn man and see it fall as flat as the expression on his face? Don't be hasty. Just because the goat is such an expert at fooling himself doesn't mean you have to be fooled, too. Actually, he desperately needs to be told he is good, clever, handsome, desirable and interesting, but since he'll seldom make his need visible, he gets few orchids.

The impression is created that he hates compliments, so he gets even fewer. It's a vicious circle. Maybe it's your fault more than his. Next time you give your Capricorn a verbal bouquet, look at his ears. See how pink they are? See that faint twinkle in his eye and how his nose twitches ever so slightly? He's as pleased as Sunday punch. Just because he doesn't dance a jig or roll in the grass like Leo, the lion, doesn't mean he hasn't been made deeply happy and ten feet taller. He needs to be seen as the truly great guy he is. Nature and the stars keep him from advertising. You'll have to be his press agent.

This man is what horticulturists would call a late bloomer. He's as serious as an owl in his youth, but he'll relax gradually as he matures, and if he's a typical Capricorn, he may end up as the youngest looking and acting man in the group.

Your Capricorn lover won't run off to Paris with you in the spring of your romance, but he may take you to see the Taj Mahal by moonlight forty or fifty years later, when other men are complaining of creaking joints. It's not a bad switch. If you're the kind who likes to stuff yourself first with rich appetizers, and then dutifully have your vegetables, he's not for you. A love affair with a Capricorn man, provided it ends in marriage, is like having dessert last, where it belongs.

It wouldn't do to insult his mother or be cool to his brother. Be prepared to love your in-laws, even if they're about as lovable as prickly cactus. Not only will he defend them, but also if you allow disputes to get sticky, the strain of choosing between loyalties to two families can make him morose and gloomy. (If there's anything in this world you don't want to do, it's make a Capricorn morose | and gloomy.)

I can almost promise that he'll never marry you if you don't pass inspection with his family.

After his family has proposed-or rather after he has proposed-put your foot down. Firmly. Let him know you love his folks dearly, but he's the one whose bed and board you've chosen to share. Otherwise, you'll spend many a Saturday night cooking dinner for his Uncle Charlie or helping his young sister through her painful adolescence.

If you don't train him early in the art of affectionate expression, you may become a well-provided-for wife who's adored and warmly appreciated-with a perfect dear for a husband-but who is also emotionally starved. It won't do any good by that time to complain that he never tells you he loves you. He'll just look at you in injured innocence or grumbling disgust (depending on how strong Saturn was at his birth), and patiently explain that "You're crazy. I distinctly remember telling you I loved you when I gave you your engagement ring and again when little Calvert was born."

He won't be a fiery lover who courts you with starry eyes and passionate, flowery speeches. But he'll protect you from all your feminine fears. He's a tough guy with a gentle heart. He'll chop the wood for that cozy fire, then sit with you in front of it and hold your hand tenderly. No matter how many gray hairs, extra pounds or wrinkles you add as the years slip by, to him you'll always look like the girl who made him say "I love you." When you stop to think about it, why should he say it again and again? Once is enough when it lasts that long.

Aquarius woman:

One thing you can depend on. Her hair won't look like the hair of any other female on this planet. Remember the story of the princess with the long, golden hair who lived high in a tower? That's the Aquarius female. Cutting off her flowing tresses won't change her any more than it did in the fairy tale. She dreams different dreams than you or I. She hears a distant drummer-and follows a star most of us have never seen.

The Aquarian girl's demand for freedom is insistent, but her allegiance to anyone who can accept romance within such limits is boundless. Here's something you'll like:

She won't be terribly interested in your bank book (unless Cancer or Capricorn or Taurus is on her ascendant). Money is never the prime consideration of the typical Aquarian woman. She won't care if you're not the richest man in town, but she'll expect you to be respected in some way for your intellectual achievements. Dr. Christian Bamard and his heart transplants or Wemher von Braun and his rockets interest her far more than J. Paul Getty and his billions.

If you're looking for a passion flower, you've picked the wrong daisy. Passion is not her forte if she's a typical Aquarian. She's an ideal girl if you're planning a political, scientific or educational career. Her lack of suspicion under normal circumstances is a special bonus. The typical Uranus woman will never check up on you after you leave, phone you at the office, inspect your handkerchiefs for lipstick stains or look for blonde hairs caught in your cuff link. Deception will have to be brought forcibly to her attention; she won't go out looking for it. Before you give her too much credit, consider that her lack of passionate jealousy is due to something more than strength of character. First of all, she probably dissected your psyche under a microscope before she gave you a second glance.

It's comforting to know that an Aquarian girl is pretty cagey with a buck. That is, it's comforting to know unless you're planning to hit her for a loan. She might say yes a time or two, but if you let your credit rating slip, she can be colder than the guy at the bank when you skip your car payment. On the rare occasions when she accepts a small loan herself, you'll get back every penny with no stalling, excuses or feminine wiles, if she's a typical Uranus female. As for every man's nightmare of charge accounts, you'll have little worry on that score. Aquarian women are uncomfortable about owing money. Bad debts don't fit in with the Uranus code.

A conversation with her can be remarkable, to say the least. She has charming manners, and usually behaves in a timid, almost reserved way. Then comes one of those sudden Uranus urges, and out will pop a remark with absolutely no relation to what anyone is saying.

Never talk down to an Aquarian female. She'll resent not being considered your equal, and an unsympathetic attitude will cause her to retreat and become unapproachable.

She won't exactly rush into matrimony. She's in no hurry to take your name until she's weighed you, sorted you, tested you, and found out what makes you tick. The opinions of her friends and family will mean nothing, though she may ask them what they think out of curiosity. She has her own yardstick for measuring you.

There's some kind of a snag in her thinking that causes her to believe just a little twist will improve anything. But she'll smile agreeably as she goes on her own sweet way. There's a constant urge to experiment with a different way to make the coffee, fill her pen, fasten her ice skates or cross the street. She'll wear a sweater backwards, mix her brandy with milk, arrange flowers in a fish bowl, rinse her hair in shaving lotion or make a rock garden on your desk. But don't ask her why. She doesn't know herself. The unique and unusual is her wave-length, that's all.

She's susceptible to sudden flashes of inspiration, and her intuition is remarkable. Her judgment may not seem sound or practical at first, because she sees months and years ahead. What she says will come true, perhaps after many delays and troubles, but it will come true. I suppose, after all, that's the most special thing about your Aquarius woman. She's a little bit magic.

Oil in North Dakotha doing miracles to common man

2008-07-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

Story of a couple thats been through hard times and became millionaires in just a few months:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374243,00.html

Tim Russert dies at 58

2008-06-13T15:55:00.000-04:00

Tim Russert, who is one of the most political talk show hosts I admire died today of heart attack. I watch him on MEET THE PRESS and I have always considered him a quality journalist and a true professional. I'll miss him and his show, but I am sure the country will miss him at greater levels. Hes a gem and although he already had a successful career, I'm sure he'd have had many more great milestones in his life. His service to the country has been monumental.

I hear he was a great son and loved his family.

Where can you find bangles in US

2008-04-04T11:42:00.000-04:00

You know what... they have bangles at Dillard's. I've seen these before and I've considered them as bracelets even though they really are bangles.. I was little surprised that they are actually calling them bangles and they even had a nice picture advertisement in the walk way in Dillard's.. Check out this picture:

Economic Stimulus Payment Notice

2008-03-20T18:17:00.000-04:00

US Department Of Treasury IRS is giving away money to everyone whose income is more than $3000 in 2007. To receive the payment, you don't have to do anything but file your 2007 tax returns. Each person can get anywhere from $300 to $600 (or $600 to $1200 for joint filers) depending on your adjusted gross income. You may also receive additional $300 for each qualifying child.

Here is the letter you can expect to see in your mail shortly.

FED CUT RATES - What is the "RATE" in question

2008-03-20T16:37:00.000-04:00

The following wiki article explains it pretty well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_funds_rate

The rate the media is talking about.. is the "NOMINAL Federal funds rate" which is NOT the interest rate at which banks offer loans or mortgages to consumers.

This is a target rate decided by the FOMC(Federal Open Market Commitee) as a means to control national money supply. At a high level, this is the rate that commercial banks use for over night loans among themselves. Banks borrow money from other banks to maintain their minimal required reserve. Lowering this rate will ease money borrowing for banks.

An "expert" on medical electronic databases

2008-03-19T21:03:00.000-04:00

Today, I came across an article written by a so called "expert in the field", i.e. the field of medicine and medical electronic databases. Reading through the article has disappointed me because I always believed doctors are intelligent and sensible people.

This article/commentary was written by Jane M. Orient. It is written against the idea of having central databases containing patients' medical information. I am not supporting the medical databases here, but the defense she is using against the idea is meaningless. Some of the most naive statements from the article are:

Quote: Would it(electronic database) make your medical record available if hurricane wiped out your doctor's office? May be - But you don't need a data warehouse, just a backup of the data.

It seems like common sense that, while humongous amount of important paperwork is lying around, we should try to cut down on it(natural resources and cost) and increase the security rather than plainly double the trouble.

Quote: Once errors are in an electronic database, they may be virtually impossible to expunge, thanks to multiple backup copies in multiple unknown locations.

One must have no idea how software technologies have evolved to say this. A system where errors cannot be rectified and data duplicated in multiple untraceable locations should be built in 1980s or built by a cheap developer that is not capable of designing a robust, secure software product. I am sure US government can afford to pay for a decent software product. Technology does allow avoiding the problems Ms. Orient is anticipating.

Quote: Electronic records do not magically transfer your history into a doctor's brain. In fact, many doctors find them as a hindrance. The best way to understand a patient's story is still to hear it directly from the patient.

So, do doctors dislike reading the records as long as a patient can speak, whether the records are electronic or not? Does having an electronic version prevent you from listening to the patient? Did a paper file prevent you from listening to the patient?

Quote: If a record is electronic, patients should avoid telling a medical practitioner anything they wouldn't want a blackmailer to discover.

Do you save your money in a bank or put it as cash in your basement? Do you use email? Do you make phone calls?

Fed cuts rates in US - media talking Gibberish

2008-03-18T23:21:00.000-04:00

The big news now is: FED CUT RATES.

So what???? This news sounds to me like: Fed is now cultivating Blue apples on Moon - WTH? Why? So? Is it Good or is it Bad?

- What is this "RATE" in question?
- Why is Fed cutting it? What is it expecting out of this step? Did Fed see expected results by doing it earlier this year?
- How could the "fed cut" improve economy?
- Why will Fed cut improve the so called "people spending"?
- Why is fed cut not effecting mortgage rates?
- Fed cut is in fact clearly effecting something: the interest rates i.e. people will now get less interest on their savings. How is that supposed to be a positive thing?
- Who so far has been benefited by FED Cuts?

People do not know answers for all of these questions. But the media of this civilized nation hypes the "FED CUT RATES" news to such an extent that people are agitated all around the world. Sexy US media is acting very mysterious(not too surprising), providing no clue of how this might effect common man, one that is having ill-determined preconceptions and expectations on how all this could effect him.

ING Direct mortgage renewal

2008-03-14T16:00:00.000-04:00

I have always been pleased by ING Direct. Now, whether I am ignorant of better banks or not, that I am not sure. But ING has always offered great products and a great customer service.

For example, I just heard of their Mortgage renewal process. It sounded COOOOOOL to me. It actually sounded too good to be true!

Say you get a 7/1ARM at 6% interest rate and after 3 years, you decide to renew with ING Direct because they have a great rate(5.5%), at that time, you get the new rate fixed for 7 more years, but then at that time your mortgage doesn't extend to 30 more years. You will still have only 27 years left on your mortgage. Thats wonderful.

So, renewal is way too much different than refinancing. In refinance, you go to a different bank and then you start over again for 30 more years or at that time, may be 15 years.. whichever you choose to go with. In either case, you are penalized there by the first mortgage where you paid too much of interest and too little of principle(Thats how mortgages work, the philosophy is - say you owe 100K in total interest for 30 year lifetime of the loan, you will end up paying like 50K in the first 10 years itself - totally unfair, but thats the fact). Anyways.. In other words refinancing is not good unless you decide to stick with the newer mortgage for a long period of time.. Otherwise you just keep paying high interest to which ever bank you shift from and they are going to enjoy the extra bucks you paid them for not staying with them for a considerable part of the 30 years... Also, after the refinance, if you pick 30 year fixed again, you have now elongated your mortgage to 30 more years, which means more interest and.. most of it in the first few years.. too bad.

The fact that renewal doesn't penalize us for the first 3 years is good. And our interest rate just goes down. But keep in mind, this comes with a small price. $500 for renewal.. which you can do every 6 months if you do not make any late payments. And if you plan to do a renewal, it is a risky assumption you are making that at some point during 7 years the interest rate is going to be attractive. Also is a risky assumption that this "renewal offer" will stay good until when you want to renew. They said this is something they are offering as a special for ING Direct customers for a long time now, in order to not lose their customers. But they cannot promise this will stay here for ever.

Few things I do not know are:
1) Do other banks allow this kind of renewals? With either ARMs or Fixed rate mortgages..
2) Say you go with 7/1 ARM and we decide to renew in the 7th year.. because the rate is attractive, dropped from say our 6% to 5.5%. Is it a good choice or not?? I am not sure. Thats because the fact that they are offering 5.5% means that the rates are doing pretty good in general. So, instead of you taking the rate into control, you can wait until the 7 year period ends and see them change your rate to 5.5%, in which case you are saving $500 renewal fee. But actually $500 is quite a small amount compared to the huge interest you are paying. So, if you want to renew in 6th year and fix 5.5% for 7 more years, then you might be making a good choice, unless the rate gets even better an you would really have got a 5.2% rate if you waited for them to change the rate after 7 years. Of course you can renew again then, pay $500, and get the 5.2% :) whether or not its worth 500, is a calculation you need to do.

I'll update my readers with more information if I can gather some.

Jodha Akbar - Indian movie clip

2008-02-23T10:39:00.000-05:00

Total lunar eclipse, Feb 20, 2008

2008-02-20T23:02:00.001-05:00

Here is a live telecast of the eclipse:

http://www.kare11.com/video/player_live.aspx

I wanted to get a feel of watching the lunar eclipse in-person tonight, but due to the partially cloudy skies in Atlanta, I am unable to enjoy this celestial event. I peeked at around 10:01pm and again at 10.20pm.. I am sure it is beautiful, but I didn't see it much different in color, when the clouds moved a bit giving me a sneak peek.

Kindle

2008-02-20T22:51:00.001-05:00

Check out this cool device from amazon when you have a moment:
Kindle

My predictions:
- Just like many consumer electronics, Kindle's price is going to go down. The price today is 399 US Dollars. In about a year, the price will drop atleast by a fifty dollars or they will deliver much more for the same price. Looks and features will evolve.
- It will become a threat to Borders, Barnes and Noble etc. It will show effect in about 1 to 2 years.

Cute poetry at work

2008-02-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

I work in this cool team and our cool big boss BK does this for Valentines day every year to show his personal way of thanking us for our hardwork, get attitude and love for each other :). We all get an email from St. Valentine every day with a clue that leads us to a hidden treasure. We keep getting the email until someone finds where it is. I think it is BK thats the St. Valentine, but whoever is composing this poetry.. is doing it pretty well.. Here are the clues so far. I'll keep posting more poetry as long as I receive more clues. Enjoy! (Our team is on the 7th floor of the building)

Clue # 1:
Might be lost, might be found--
and thus you search, thus you hound.
Perhaps an animal you will see,
yet canine I'll not be.

Clue # 2:
On seven you reside,
on seven my heart does hide.
But here I hear the passers by,
unseeing, though I try.

Clue # 3:
From Leo's mane,
saccharum came.

Google

2008-02-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

So.. what kind of information does Google not have about you? Your DNA information? Well.. may be they'll soon have that as well...

Check out:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/23/google-health-coming-soon/

Once you are dead and all gone or even before that :) , if you are lucky (or unlucky?) to have someone so interested in you that they are determined to know all about you.. anything about you that can be found... where should they go? The answer could be "Google".

I mean go convince Google to give you access to a person's Google account and I believe that'll give you a virtual autobiography of that person. Atleast thats going to be a great option someone could try.. although it also depends on Google's privacy policies. Take CIA for example.. They don't really have rules to stick by.. right???

jibx weird stuff

2008-02-15T14:27:00.000-05:00

Okay... first of all never trust compilers :) kidding..
So.. if you see build errors like below:

Error: Need field or set-method for input handling; on value element at (line 52, col 77, in Hotel-binding.xml)

Error: No way to set property value; on value element at (line 52, col 77, in Hotel-binding.xml)

Error: Need field or get-method for input handling; on value element at (line 90, col 83, in Availability-binding.xml)

Error: No way to get property value; on value element at (line 90, col 83, in Availability-binding.xml)

Error: Need field or set-method for input handling; on value element at (line 103, col 115, in Customer-binding.xml)

Error: No way to set property value; on value element at (line 103, col 115, in Customer-binding.xml)

What would you think the problem is? That your binding files are incorrect?
Well.. mister.. you could be wrong. The real problem was that the binding files were within sub-folders referred to by a binding.xml. Remove the binding.xml and move all the binding files to the current directory and boom the compiler is somehow no longer worried about set-methods or get-methods. Another gotcha: This is not an issue if you are building you app using ANT. Its only an issue if you are building it using Maven. Here is how my jibx plugin looked like in my POM after I got it to work:

<plugin>
        <groupid>org.jibx</groupid>
        <artifactid>maven-jibx-plugin</artifactid>
        <version>1.1M</version>
        <configuration>
                <directory>src/main/jibx</directory>
                <includes>
                        <includes>Hotel-binding.xml</includes>
                        <includes>Availability-binding.xml</includes>
                        <includes>Customer-binding.xml</includes>
                </includes>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
                <execution>
                        <goals>
                                <goal>bind</goal>
                        </goals>
                </execution>
        </executions>
</plugin>

And here how it was before I got it to work:

<plugin>
        <groupid>org.jibx</groupid>
        <artifactid>maven-jibx-plugin</artifactid>
        <version>1.1M</version>
        <configuration>
                <directory>src/main/jibx</directory>
                <includes>
                        <includes>*.xml</includes>
                </includes>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
                <execution>
                        <goals>
                                <goal>bind</goal>
                        </goals>
                </execution>
        </executions>
</plugin>

Television Shows

2008-02-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

Two shows I cannot afford to miss are:
- October Road - I like the story, the music and the small town- country setting and the clearly defined characters.
- Brothers and Sisters - I like the story of the current generation "happy" American family, portraying the current US "issues" and the well directed screenplay.

Both air on the "abc" channel. And most of the time I get to watch them online if I happen to miss them for any reason. Go check them out if you'd like to:

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing?lid=ABCCOMGlobalMenu&lpos=FEP

Democrats, Republicans

2008-02-10T11:31:00.000-05:00

Since 1857 i.e for the past one hundred and fifty one years in the US history, Democrats ruled for 68 years and Republicans for 83 years i.e. Republicans ruled for 15 more years when compared to Democrats i.e. for approximately 4 terms.

Seems to be quite a balance. Considering the "survival of the fittest" theory, so far none proved to be a dominant versus the other. Republicans won but not with a clear dominance.

But feels to me like, with the given political situation and the current president's (ofcourse not the party's) acceptance ratings and the republicans being in power for 2 continuous terms , if democrats don't win, I guess, I personally am going to call the Republicans the smarter "race", the "Fittest!"

C'mon! I couldn't understand how Bush won the white house for a straight second term! I was tempted to call Democrats dumbos then. But I'm giving them a second chance :).

Raspberry vinaigrette baby spinach salad

2008-01-31T07:42:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine made this salad the last time I was at their place. I tired it out last night. It was delicious and felt really healthy. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients for 2 servings:
- 1/2 lb Baby Spinach - washed and drained (well drained and dry spinach is preferred)
- 1 Orange or 2 small clementines - peeled and skinned to preference
- 5 to 6 Strawberries remove the green portion, clean and slice them
- 2 table spoons of Walnut pieces
- Ken's Steak House Lite Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette for dressing
- Crumbled Feta Cheese(I used Treasure cave garlic and Herb Feta Cheese) - 4 to 5 table spoons

Method:
To a large bowl, add the entire spinach, then the clementines and sliced strawberries. Mix them to evenly distribute. Add 4 table spoons of the dressing and mix it a little bit. Toss on to it the walnut pieces and 2 servings of feta cheese(about 4 table spoons).

Thats it! Easy too! I always thought raw spinach is bitter. But it was not.. Not at all. And the berry taste.... Yum! You can add blue berries or raspberries or substitute the strawberries with these.. Improvise..

Top 10+ things to do when you are in Las Vegas

2008-01-30T22:57:00.001-05:00

These are the places you should definitely check-out in the night:
1) Paris, view of the Bellagio fountain from the top of Eiffel tower
3) Bellagio, musical fountain show outside the casino - dusk to dawn - every 15 minutes or 30 mintutes
4) Mirage, the volcano eruption show - outside the casino - dusk to dawn- every 15 minutes or 30 mintutes
5) Treasure Island - pirates show - outside the casino - dusk to dawn- every 1 hour i think.
6) Venetian, the inside setting of the Venice city, the gondola(boat ride) - This you can do during day time also if you don't have time in the night. Basically, even if you go inside in the night, the setting will be like evening sky, bright and beautiful.
7) View of the Strip from the Stratosphere tower top. (Not sure till what time they are open in the evenings - we went to the tower top in the day time, it was fine)
8) Excalibur - Just nice to look at in the night
9) Downtown - Fremont Street Experience

The rest of the casinos you should definitely check-out are:
10) New York New York - Day time is good (You also have a roller coaster ride if you are interested - it was fun)
11) MGM Grand
12) Luxor
13) Ceasar's Palace, Ceasar's shops
14) Madam Tussads wax Mueseum - beside the Venetian
15) Wynn Casino - Nothing really special, but its good to look at...
16) Stratosphere - thrill rides at the top of the tower. Exciting and scary - if you are interested.

All the rest of them are good, depending on the time you have. But I think the ones I listed are the best ones. So, depending on the time you have, space it out and plan accordingly.

Paris and Bellagio are opposite to each other. (There might be a long line and waiting time for the Eiffel tower).

Mirage and Venetian are opposite to each other. So plan them together. Treasure island is a short walk from Venetian.

Plan for NewYork NewYork , MGM Grand and Luxor in the morning. Ceasar's palace is big and takes a long time.

Definitely take your camera to Madame Tussauds wax museum, you will have wax statues of celebrities, they look very real in pictures :)

And if possible, go for a buffet in any of the casinos. Most of them have very nice and huge buffets for breakfast, brunch, lunch as well as dinner. We happened to go at 10.30 for a buffet in stratosphere and we got to choose from both breakfast items and lunch items. There is no way one can taste all the items offered.

Katie backstage

2008-01-24T11:08:00.001-05:00

I agree with what this person wrote as a comment on the video:

by kmkr on January 15, 2008, at 10:32AM PST

So this is the `news anchor' we are supposed to trust, with glib, bias and crafting the news? Let's see, creating `drama' since the pentagon story wasn't dramatic enough. Creating `polls', since the want to create the image that Romney is finished, creating results on Rudy, as `Rudy's dead'. Rehearsing questions with the answers they want. Hmmm, so this is what news has come too? Thankfully there is the new media to counteract the bias, liberal, smarminess of the elite news media. They are so self engrandizing, so elitest. They seem to think they have a right to create, defend and manufacture non-stories to get the result they want. This is a clear view of what really happens. I haven't watched the national news for years, and I don't need to because this is fiction. I can get the real truth from the internet, tracking down the real sources and information. I don't have to wait for a cool logo in the snow to spoon feed me the news they created, packaged and tried to pass off as `news'. No wonder CBS is losing viewership. I wish there was someone watching the media and pointing out their falsehoods. They don't know have to use integrity, too bad. The real good ones are gone

Todays puzzle

2008-01-09T13:52:00.000-05:00

from my page-a-day mensa calendar: (I kinda liked it so...)

What letter would logically replace the question mark in the sequence below
A E F H I K L M N ?

Answer will be provided if someone requests it..

Britney Spears

2008-01-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

I used to think in the US, you don't tease a person based on his/her disability. I thought its considered unethical.. But looking at the way media is belittling and torturing Britney, I think the media has simply lost its mind. I mean I just don't get it.. why would they waste valuable air time just to mock a person who is already gone insane. In reality, I think media takes part of the blame for her insanity.

Britney is a major issue of the country not just in gossip articles/programs, even in the news..... C'mon! Media.. if your motive is to simply divert your audience from the more important issues of the country, try to find some other sensible topic. It looks like you already have lined up Britney's sister to torture if and when you are satisfied of how much you ruined Britney! Oh.. Please.. leave them alone!

gangs of newyork - discover

2007-08-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

- early 19th century - immigrants in new york - development of the US
- 5 points - E of where WTC, bottom of Lil Italy and top of now china city
- Cholera - horrible sanitation - stunk - horses- pings - cats - rotten food
- unskilled Irish were willing to work for less than the blacks
- That represented that they are of a different race, inferior religion inferior everything
- 2 sorts of gangs - native born americans - and the irish immigrant gangs
- the dead rabbits - gang - in irish is big hulking "galoot"
- dead = real, very, rabbit = tough guy
- first half of 19th century - no official fire fighters - main problem was fire - not mugging - not theft etc
- buildings used to burn - they are all together
- 1835 - Dec - a fire took 13 acres of downtown - 625 buildings -> more than Sep 2005
- changed the landscape, economy and changed the way new york operated

hey hey

2007-07-16T15:18:00.002-04:00

Just so I can refer to these if I need to sing along, I am saving them here - for easy access:

AVRIL LAVIGNE LYRICS
"Girlfriend"

[Chorus]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don’t like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
You know it’s not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend

[Verse 1]
You’re so fine
I want you mine
You’re so delicious
I think about ya all the time
You’re so addictive
Don’t you know what I could do to make you feel alright?
Don’t pretend I think you know I’m damn precious
And Hell Yeah
I’m the motherfucking princess
I can tell you like me too and you know I’m right

[Bridge:]
She’s like so whatever
And you could do so much better
I think we should get together now
And that’s what everyone’s talking about!

[Chorus:]
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I don’t like your girlfriend!
No way! No way!
I think you need a new one
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I could be your girlfriend

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
You know it’s not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend

[Verse 2]
I can see the way, I see the way you look at me
And even when you look away I know you think of me
I know you talk about me all the time again and again
So come over here, tell me what I want to hear
Better yet make your girlfriend disappear
I don’t want to hear you say her name ever again
(And again and again and again!)

[Bridge]

[Chorus]

Hey! Hey! You! You!
I know that you like me
No way! No way!
You know it’s not a secret
Hey! Hey! You! You!
I want to be your girlfriend

In a second you’ll be wrapped around my finger
Cause I can, cause I can do it better
There’s no other
So when's it gonna sink in?
She’s so stupid
What the hell were you thinking?!
[repeat]

[Chorus]

Al Gore versus Michel Moore

2007-07-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

I am comparing "An inconvenient truth" with "sicko" while I watch the Al Gore's movie. I haven't read a single review on either of these movies. So rest assured my mind did not have any pre-conceived notions. So this is totally unbiased common citizen individual opinion.

I am still yet to make a final statement.. but there is a lot of "I, me, my" in the IT. The movie started with a series of incomplete statements, disconnected shots, random graphs that did not make any sense except potray Al Gore as an important person a hero.. I'm trying to figure... Is there some hidden message / information flow.. Looks like there isn't...

The movie is getting better as it goes, I'm getting useful information now, but... still, every once in a while, there is boasting, me, I... :-/ It is very good information and atleast he is making a movie that is good information for people, So Al Gore is infact a hero. However, I don't like that being shown in the movie itself. I need information. Matter. Compared to the IT, I really like the way Michael Moore took his Sicko movie, I have not seen a single minute wasted in Sicko - whether keeping up the spirit of the viewer with comedy, music effect or providing information.

Wait a minute.. what does "inconvenient truth" have to do with election, failure... oh... he wants to show us how he became more focused on environment.... hm... why ??

Now again... "I ... my family car.." ok.. i'll not complain abt it much.. but what were those 2 mins abt ? work versus fun ????

Al gore is travelling now. He is feeling bad he is not doing as much as he wants to... Do we need that information ?

I'm seeing this the second time in the movie: People taking pictures of Al Gore in their cell phones and cameras.. ??? !! ??? Not as part of another scene. Making that a scene by ITSELF.

Michael Moore never showed anything that self centered. Hey, Al Gores movie isn't self centered at a high level.. NO..... but the tiny flashes here and there.. I dislike them. The movie would be .. to me.. simply PERFECT if void of those..

Tobacco.. smoking, danger of lung cancer... cigarettes killing people, reckon.. connect the dots more quickly.. I liked the analogy there.. Hey, this "I example" really made sense.

IDEA: Can I call this ixample (I+example = example based on me) so someone would add my word to the modern English dictionary ?? I'll hope.

Nice quote there by Upton Sinclair.. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it".

Good movie - IC. Nice movie and a good movie - Sicko

my pacman high score today

2007-07-03T21:25:00.000-04:00

this plus a 15000 i.e. 116850 apprx

Longest words in English

2007-06-13T09:34:00.000-04:00

3rd longest: FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION:
Floccinaucinihilipilification listen (help·info) (American English: listen (help·info)) is "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation". (wikipedia)

2nd longest: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis(Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.ogg (help·info) (also spelled -koniosis) is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, "a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust usually found in volcanos'. It was coined to serve as supposedly the longest English word. The more general and widely used term for this condition is pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease.
source: wikipedia

Factoids

2007-04-15T15:17:00.000-04:00

1) Can you use anti-aging products in your 20s ?
A. Sure, the sooner, the better. Also depends on the kind of product (may be harsh products are bad), but signs of aging on face could start appearing as early as in late 20s to 30s. So better prevention than cure.

2) Does Borders franchise stores?
A. Doesn't look like - in US. They have only 2 franchises: one in Kuala Lumpur and another one newly established somewhere else in Malaysia. Barnes and Nobles wholly owns all its stores and doesn't even plan to offer any franchising opportunities in near future

3) Where can you find nice little recipe journals ?
A. Try Target store.

4) Funky wedding ?
A. Submit it to People magazine.

Its something Donald Trump said that I agree with

2007-03-18T12:07:00.000-04:00

Totally unhappy Anniversary

2007-03-17T23:19:00.000-04:00

Today is the fourth anniversary of Iraq war. A sad but realistic statistic:

The 9/11 attacks killed 2,973 people - Iraq war took lives of 3,200 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis so far.

More are destined to die, more will be forced to return to their war duties well before they are ready to.

What would Mr. President say to an anti-US Terrorist who says: "Thanks for taking over for us. We don't have to strive as much as we used to.. now that you are there to achieve our goals" ?

Shame on the White House!