Tangled Web

Use Case

2009-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Use Cases are one of the most important aspects of application development... The more elaborate and descriptive a usecase, the clearer the understanding... This is one of the best examples of use-case I have seen in a while now. Masking some items to keep the "user" anonymous.

Complicating Simplicity

2009-11-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

I love my gadgets. I think it is hereditary. I got it from my dad. I remember my growing up years where dad used to come home with one new acquisition after another - digital clocks, stereo sets, calculators, portable televisions... Eventually I had my own income and I set out on my own conquests (ok... shopping trips). And I discovered cell phones. I still remember my first Siemens cell phone. In looked like a brick! It was big, it was heavy, it was unwieldy. But that was just the beginning. There was a Nokia invasion in India and I was captured. I had a new phone every 6 months! Sleeker, fancier, more and more features... and then I got my dad hooked on it too. We were almost competing on who had the better phone.

And then I came to the US! This country has a knack of complicating the most simplest of things. In India, every Ram, Shyam and Hari has a cell phone. The rate plans are simple: you either have a pre-paid or post paid phone. There is a fixed rate for each minute you talk, each SMS and I am assuming the same applies for data usage too (Browsing on Cell Phones was not the in-thing when I was in India last). You could buy any cell phone you like (and can afford) and just put in your SIM card (unless you were stuck with a CDMA connection which was not too popular).

Buying a calling plan is so complicated here... Are you chatty or do you just want to text? Do you browse a lot or do you just want to check your e-mail? Do you want to talk equally every month or do you want to roll over your minutes? And oh yeah, these are the only 10 phones you can buy - which one do you want? I hate this. Currently, I have a Nokia N80, an HTC Diamond and a MotoRokr - all of them are unlocked and not bought from any of the Cell Phone providers. When I first picked out a T-Mobile connection 3 years back, there was no option to buy a plan without a phone online... So I walked down to the nearest store. They gave me the whole song and dance about some T-Mobile applications I will be missing out on. But finally I got a plain old SIM card and a plan. Then started the cumbersome journey of adding new services. Each time I try to add a service online, it asks me to pick my phone. And surprise, surprise! My phone is not one of the phones that they offer. But there is a workaround... find a phone that has similar capabilities and pick that one.

Recently, I moved to the middle of nowhere. And T-Mobile has very bad coverage here. So I decided to switch to AT&T or Verizon... and guess what? I cannot do that online because I don't want to pay another 200 bucks for a phone that has lesser features than my current phone!! Another trip to their store, I guess. I wonder why cell phone companies put up with this. They have so many cool call phone models available in Asia Pacific which they can sell here too... People can buy it based on their spending power. So why lock down the choices that people have? And why force people to decide whether I want to talk more or text more... what if I want to talk more this month and text more the next month! Why can't it be that you pay x dollars a month and you decide what you want to do with that money - text, talk, browse, rollover, flush it down the toilet, whatever!

Like the Deserts miss the Rain

2009-11-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

I miss Seattle... my life there and everything else about the place. I have lived there close to 6 years in the last decade. After Kerala, this is the longest I've lived anywhere. It really is a home away from home for me. After living away from my parents for so long, my friends are my family now. And I had a handful of really good friends in Seattle - people who knew me well, who were there for me if I ever needed help, who would be there to rejoice in my happiness, who would come and just sit with me when I am sad and dont want to talk. All the things that family would do. I miss the Wii Battles (which I always lost), the parties, the potlucks, the BBQs, the shopping... And most of all, I miss the two cutest and most adorable kids I have ever known. I miss the evenings and weekends I spent with them. I miss their silly squabbles to catch our attention. I miss those naughty smiles, those tiny little hands pulling me around... and I miss their mommy too. I don't think my own sister would have taken such good care of me, if I had one.

Why do I keep going through this whole cycle of starting over? I dont think I can take too many more of this. Its bad enough that I am away from my parents and missing them terribly. I hate feeling like I am somewhere and my heart is elsewhere. High time I learned how to maintain boundaries!!

FamiliarITy

2009-08-27T13:22:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This post is based solely on my observations as an IT services professional for the last decade. Your point of view might be different. Deal with it!!

Familiarity breeds contempt, says the adage. In an ever competitive world of consulting, outsourcing & services industry, familiarity breeds a lot more than just contempt.

In most IT services companies, the client relationship managers take up the dual responsibility of sales too. To stay ahead in the rat race, you always have a new strategy or solution. Assuming you have a great product or service to sell, the deal clincher is how you market it. This is one place where familiarity is a foe. If your client has known you for years and have seen you in action, he/she would know your limits by now. They have seen your negotiation tactics, they know how far you would go, and what your breaking point is. There is no element of surprise. There is limited room for negotiation and as a result, lesser profit margin.

The biggest complaint you hear from couples who have been married for ages is that their spouse takes them for granted. Same applies to a client relationship too. In long client engagements, you start getting treated as one of their own! There are definitely advantages to this. But it has disadvantages too. The bar is being raised constantly. Your client might have employees who have worked with them for half a century and knows everything inside out. You cannot keep the same people around for that long. The career paths and the company direction of IT & consulting firms is different from their end customer.

To get your foot in at a new client, you might have agreed to some aggressive timelines and billing rates. But if you were not proactive enough to set the expectation that this is a one time deal to prove your proficiency, you are in big trouble, Negotiations & changes of billing rates and SLAs are difficult with long term clients. If your star performer is being billed at $x an hour, you can increase that $x to some extend based on market conditions or what not. But there is only so far you can push without straining the relationship. The same person could be positioned at a different client location at a higher rate.

Last but not the least: you snooze, you lose! Business trends and technology is changing at a blinding pace. Unless you work in different environments with varying management styles and problem statements, you lose your competitive edge. You tend to practice & preach the client's way of doing things just because you haven't explored any other options. This not only hampers your career, your client is also losing out on any thought leadership from you.

So I guess the best adage for today is "Variety is the spice of life!"

OK to be Gay in India

2009-07-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

In a landmark judgment, the Delhi High Court legalized gay sex among consenting adults. This repeals part of section 377 of Indian Penal Code on grounds of violation of fundamental rights. India is finally upholding the part of our constitution that says "The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth." In its 105 page judgment, the bench noted that "It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality."

I am sure there are going to be repercussions from political and religious stalwarts. In fact, the Catholic Church in Kerala was quick to point out that "Legalizing gay sex will open up the society to some sort of sexual anarchy. Perhaps Indian culture is being eroded by the western promiscuous culture." I can't wait to hear what the Hindu extremists and the Muslim fanatics have to say about all this.

For a country that still upholds a lot of conservative beliefs, this is a giant leap. The legal aspect of same-sex relationship is taken care. But the social stigma associated to it will take a lot more time to disintegrate. Even though monumental, this is just the first step. There are still issues of marriage, adoption, legal status as dependents, inheritance, etc which needs to be figured out for same sex couples. After all, California is still fighting Prop 8!

Self Help at its Best!!

2009-05-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday!

2009-05-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

1998: Turned 21 on Mother's Day. I remember the day clearly. It was my last year of Engineering. I already had a job offer and I was to start at the job end of that year. I was going to be away from home and on my own for the first time in my life. Every year, my parents used to throw my a birthday party and the guests always were the same - Sreedevi and Peelu... sometimes Indu & Nisha too. But this year was different... there were boys ;) Just a couple of friends from college but it was a big deal for me and a new worry for my parents. But I had a blast. It was a birthday filled with a lot of hopes... Hopes for an exciting future - looking forward to a career, independence, new experiences, responsibility, love and eventually a family and a home - a turning point in life. I remember joking that day about my kids being able to celebrate my birthday and Mother's Day on the same day once in a few years.

2009: 11 years later, another birthday on Mother's Day. 11 years back, I imagined that I would be able to celebrate Mother's Day with my kids by now... It feels like I am once again waiting for life to take another turn. Some of the aspirations from 11 years back have come true... I have a decent career; I make a good living. I am independent. I had my share of new experiences. There was love... but there was loss too. There is a house... but it is not a home yet. Over the last 2-3 years, I feel like a hamster running in a wheel... It is the same routine over and over... And I am waiting for life to begin again... But while I am running in circles in that wheel, time is slipping by. I know that life doesnt happen... I need to make it happen. But I seem to have lost the will to live... I still have dreams and hopes and desires... but I have given up trying to realize them.

I feel like I am asleep and my wake up alarm is a lullaby and so I just keep sleeping.

Happy Birthday to me! And on this day, my advice to self is "Memento Mori!"

April Fool!

2009-04-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Finally, it's spring!!

Nope... fooled you. Its snowing in Seattle!

Forgot to pray? There is an app for that

2009-03-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

This is the age of apps. Not a single day passes without me seeing the Apple iPhone ad claiming there is an app for just about anything. If you are a believer, I assume you pray everyday. Do you have days where you are running late for work and forgot to mumble the everyday prayer before rushing out of your house? And have you spend that entire day attributing any small thing that goes wrong to the forgotten prayer?

Well, say goodbye to forgotten prayers. There is an app for that! Well, not an app but a subscription service. Information Age Prayer has a paid service available that uses computers with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. Even if you forget, your computer will remember to pray on your behalf.

You can pick the religion you belong to. If the religion you follow is not currently listed on the site, you can always e-mail them suggestions to include the religion! But in the meanwhile, you can pick an "Unaffiliated" prayer! Just like you car, you can either have a DX version at a low cost or pay more to get an LX version. And in this f***ed up economy, you can even pray for financial stability at a discounted rate of $3.95 a month. Oh, but if God does not seem to be answering your prayers, the website has a no refund policy!

Seriously?! If you dont remember to pray, then you dont really believe in God that much. You will remember God when you need something. And daily you keep praying just in case He/She is listening and decides to penalize people who dont pray everyday. So the prayer is either because of a selfish need or fear of retribution. If you believe in the all mighty and powerful God, how can you think that he will be pleased with you automating the prayer?

Coming to think of it, this is not much different from how things used to be. Growing up, my mom used to tag me along to the temple. On a regular basis, we had the DX version of the prayer where the priest mumbles our prayer along with a bunch of others. But once a while, we'll have the LX version where the priest is exclusively praying for us! Only difference is that during those days, we actually turned up at the temple and stuck around to ensure that the prayer is being delivered.

Motivation

2009-02-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

I think I should become a motivational speaker. I am sure I can motivate people to give up on life!!

Tie or Die

2009-02-06T12:14:00.001-08:00

In 1942, Mahatma Gandhi encouraged Indians to "Do or Die". It took another 5 years of doing and dying for India to become a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. In 2009, there is a new slogan from Sri Ram Sena: "Tie or Die"!

Sri Ram Sena - a right wing Hindu group - is planning to marry off couples celebrating Valentines Day out in the public. They either have to tie the knot and become man n wife or tie a rakhi and become brother n sister!! According to Sri Ram Sena founder Pramod Muthalik, "Valentines Day is a Western concept and most often celebrated by Christians. We will try to stall the celebrations at any cost." They plan to roam around Bangalore on V-day and force dating couples to marry. In Mangalore, they have also issued a warning against women wearing noodle straps and tight jeans. There have also been attacks on couples at pubs. When asked about the pub attacks, Muthalik defended his supporters saying "Whoever has done this has done a good job. Girls going to pubs is not acceptable. So, whatever the Sena members did was right." Sri Ram Sena feels that they need to put a check on all activities they classify as "anti-Indian" practices.

Seriously??! How much more ridiculous can moral policing get? India is a democracy and Indians have a right to live their life in whatever way they choose. There are laws in this country and if you do not abide by it, you suffer the consequences. No other individual organization has any right to decide what is allowed and what is not, or try to police people. Our constitution states that we have liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship. So who is Muthalik to say what to believe or express. Even if V-day were a Christian celebration, why should it not be allowed in India? No one seems to have any issues with a holiday on Christmas!!

And while we are on the topic, I was just wondering... what if
- a couple who are married (not to each other but someone else)
- a couple of homosexuals
are caught by Sri Ram Sena celebrating Valentines Day? Will they also be forced to marry? As far as I am aware, Indian judiciary criminalises polygamy and also "carnal intercourse against the order of nature."

Update (Feb 10, 2009):
And janta decided to react... The Pink chaddi response from Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women. This is inane! What do they expect to accomplish by this (other than disposing off old chaddis)?

My White Dark Christmas

2008-12-25T17:28:00.000-08:00

Growing up in a city where climate was always hot and sultry with intermittent rain and monsoon, a white Christmas to mark the end of the year was a dream oh-so-perfect. And like all my dreams that come true and turn out to be my worst nightmares, my white Christmas also met with a dark end.

I live in Seattle. It rains... always! It's cold... most of the year. And I love it here!! I like cold weather; I dont like being in the sun much. But this is a city where it snows for like a day or two in a year and that too just for namesake. It leaves a thin white layer of powdery snow and then things are back to normal. Wet and cold! But no, not this year. It's been snowing for a week now. I have like 6-8 inches of snow outside. And in a city that is not prepared for this weather, it is a nightmare. The roads are slushy. There is a layer of compact snow and ice in every walkway. Most cars and drivers are not used to it. And I am no exception! And last year, on a whim, I decided to move from level ground to an apartment at the top of a hill!

I've been working from home for a week now. In the last 7 days, I have ventured out twice - my excuse was that I need to stock up on food... but I think all I wanted was to be around other human beings! It was horrible driving in the snow - especially on the slopes up to my house - with no snow chains and I dont drive a 4WD. Its frightening how your mind wanders when you spend hours at end cooped up within 4 walls.

And today is Christmas. I have a beatiful tree lit up. But it does nothing to my mood... Last year, I had gifts under the tree (OK, I bought them for myself... no matter how pathetic that sounds). This time, I did not even get a chance to buy myself a gift! This is officially the darkest Christmas I ever had. I hope and pray that this is just the case of night being darkest before the dawn! 'coz I honestly dont think I can take much more of this.

Bullfighter

2007-05-02T14:57:00.000-07:00

I had a meeting scheduled for today with two VPs and a few Senior IT Project Managers of an upscale retailer. It was a "pseudo sales pitch" where we are in a "win-win" situation. I had a conference call yesterday night with our "core team" to "touch base" on our "POA" for this meeting. The call started at 9 PM and went on till 10:30 PM. And in that 1.5 hrs, the phrase "apple-to-apple comparison" was used atleast 35-40 times!! Had the call gone any further, I think I would have screamed at the next mention of that phrase!!

Consulting & IT Services have coined a bunch of jargon we use to evangelize. It is next to impossible to talk to a consultant without hearing one of these "catch phrases". The IT services companies use atleast one these in each and every sales pitch they do.

mission statement, leverage, core competencies, bandwidth, touch base, paradigm shift, take it offline, win-win, think outside the box, brain dump, circle back...

What we don't realize is that prolonged exposure to this jargon makes us very irritant. An article in the Boston Globe points out that the world is wising up to the stale smell lurking behind your fragrant façades. They correspondent feels that we're coming around now to a time of simpler language and clearer communications.

And while doing some research on my increasing contempt for corporate jargon, I came across BullFighter - A software that fights the "bull"! In 2003, Deloitte Consulting developed a new program called Bullfighter that searches documents for jargon and unnecessarily complex language. Once installed, the Bullfighter toolbar appears in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents, and works much like the spell check feature. In 2005, Deloitte announced that they are no longer affiliated with Bullfighter software or its support. Current and future Bullfighter versions will continue to be available at http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp, free of charge.

I also came across mention of two books... the names sound interesting. Some day I should get around to reading them, I guess.
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots: A Bullfighter's Guide
OfficeSpeak: The Win-Win Guide to Touching Base, Getting the Ball Rolling, and Thinking Inside the Box

A Very Harry Week

2007-07-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

During my college years and into my first few years of employment, I was totally & completely addicted to visual arts (ahem! OK, I admit it... television!!). I wouldn't touch a book to save my life! Considering the very limited time I spend reading my textbooks, I am surprised that I graduated from college. On the contrary, I had a friend who was glued to books. Each time I went to her place, she had a new pile of books to read.

I first heard of Harry Potter from her (I never read the newspapers either... so I did not know that it was a bestseller!!). People (including my friend) were pre-ordering the book!! Whats the big deal?! It's a childrens book for crying out loud! Me, being the "visual arts" addict I was, waited for the movie. I saw the first one. Loved it. Waited for the second movie. Loved it too. Waited for the third movie. You get the pattern, right?

Eventually, in an attempt to curb my TV cravings, I started reading again. But still stayed away from Harry Potter (childrens book, remember? I am a grown-up!!). My friend recently blogged about pre-ordering the much awaited final serving of Harry Potter. And the IT world was abuzz with the Harry Potter spell on Amazon. And on July 1st, I saw the trailer of the Order of the Phoenix. Must have been an Imperius Curse, I guess. The next thing I knew, I was driving to the nearest Barnes & Noble.

I bought the Order of the Phoenix and the Half-Blood Prince. Started reading... I finished reading both of them in 3 days (working days, mind you... all I had was mornings & evenings & sleepless nights). I just couldn't put the book down! The moment I finished the books, I pre-ordered the Deathly Hallows. I still need to read the first four. And to top it all, this was a Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. They showed the first three movies... And HBO was playing the fourth.

All in all, a very Harry week.

Miles from home

2008-03-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Swallows are excellent fliers. They are mostly migratory and often return to the same territory each year.
It was believed that sailors with a swallow tattoo would always return to their homes and families as well. Sailors with one swallow tattooed on them had traveled over 5,000 miles and a sailor with two tattoos had traveled over 10,000 nautical miles and denoted a very experienced sailor. If a sailor had the misfortune of dying at sea, legend had it that a swallow would carry his spirit to heaven. And if a sailor had a friend who passed away, he may get a tattoo of a swallow with a dagger through it's breast. But swallows are also an enduring symbol of love and loyalty.

New Toy

2008-05-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I gifted myself a new iPod Touch on my birthday. 5 days since I got it... And I am totally loving it. I have loaded it up with songs for all my moods :) And I've some of my favorite photos, wallpapers, et al loaded. Decided not to sync up contacts & calendar since my cell phone already has it. Now I dont have to keep a bunch of CDs in the car. Love the touch screen. Love the way it goes to wide screen mode when I turn it hortizontally. It hooks up with WiFi networks. And the battery life is just awesome!

OK... so nothing is perfect. There are somethings I just hate about it.

Automatic sync of music: I have a bunch of my music on an external hard drive and I dont keep it hooked up to my laptop. I loaded it once to the iPod. The next time I auto-synced it, it started wiping all the music from the iPod out since the hard drive was not hooked up. So now I have to manually sync it. Painful!! But I am a very patient person :) [yeah, right!]

No games: What the f***. Even the cheapest cell phones have atleast 2 games. With all the funky features, the least Apple could do is add some games. I can play games from the browser but what if I dont have a WiFi network around? And even worse, I can't install any games on my own unless I hack it. I dont see the logic behind it. Apple is not gaining anything from this. Its not like they sell their own set of games that people can buy!

No bluetooth or even IR: With all the bluetooth enabled headphones available now, its weird that Apple does not have bluetooth in their iPod. There are bluetooth adapters available that can be plugged into the iPod. The iPhones are bluetooth enabled. So why not add it to the iPods too. Is it to promote iPhone sales??

Now, the obvious question: Why did I buy an iPod instead of iPhone? Three reasons:

(1) NO ONE makes better cellphones than Nokia

(2) I hate having a 2 year contract with AT&T on the cellphone plan

(3) Unlocked iPhones without the AT&T contracts are more expensive and not supported much by Apple

Bursting Bubbles

2008-12-07T00:47:00.000-08:00

We try to protect ourselves by building bubbles around us. It's an alternate universe inside. You believe what you want to believe. You turn a blind eye to the obvious and disgrace your intelligence. And then, one fine day, some passerby unknowingly pokes your bubble - they did not see the bubble, they intended no harm - and the bubble bursts! And you are not safe anymore. Not from your thoughts, not from your deeds, and especially not from your awareness of being a fool!

Phantasmic!!

2008-09-28T01:27:00.001-07:00

Long time back, I heard the songs of this Hindi movie named 'Hamesha'. It had this one song with an amazingly eerie tune. No surprise. It was a rip off... of the Phantom of the Opera. Obviously, the next step for me was to listen to the original. And that was when I fell in love with the Phantom of the Opera. Few years later, I got hold of the book. Loved it. And then few years hence, the movie came out. The soundtrack was spellbinding. The sets were amazing. The movie was so-so. And I decided that I wanted to see the musical.

Few months back, I heard that the Broadway tour of Phantom of the Opera is coming to Seattle. Did not waste much time in booking the tickets. And ever since, I've been counting days. And Friday was the day! I watched the Phantom of the Opera at the Paramount theater in Seattle. It was nothing short of spectacular. I am totally and completely in awe!!

For starters, Paramount theater is not much to look at from outside. This is the first time I ever went in. And oh my god! Appearances are surely deceptive. The chandeliers and the decorated ceilings transported me to another era!

And the Phantom!! I never thought you could do so much on stage realtime! The sound effects, the stage settings, the cast... I dont have words to describe it. The first scene where the chandelier is turned on... the scene where the Phantom takes Christine on a boat... the scene where the Phantom overhears Raoul and Christine sing of their love... all of it... it gave me goose bumps. Hats off the the crew that managed the stage and sound. It was impeccable. Its been a while since any performance moved me to tears.

This has been the best time I have had in a long long time!! Thank God for small blessings!

TSO is Rockin'

2008-11-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

It was an awesome evening. I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra live at the Key Arena. And what a show it was!!! 3 hrs of amazing music and breath-taking laser shows. I have been a TSO fan for a while. Their music rocks. I never thought you could make Christmas music sound like heavy metal! But the actual live experience was something else. They have like a 100+ member crew to manage just the equipment for the laser and the pyrotechnics! It felt like Diwali and 4th of July all rolled into one. And the music... what do I say about the music. The show I went for today was the second one of the day. They would have had like an hour of break in between the two shows. God knows where they find all this energy!

High Points of the show
- Christmas Eve in Sarajevo
- The guitarists alighting from the top of the stage on hanging square panels
- The guitarist and the violinist beamed up to the middle of the auditorium on a square panel with a whole rocket launch effect of smoke shooting down from the panel... you really wouldn't notice the ropes holding the panel in mid air... it almost looks like a jet pack!
- The solo performances by each of the pianists
- The narrator - as they rightly put, he can read you a phone book and make you feel like you are listening to a story!
- The blonde bombshell who belted out a bunch of high pitch notes center stage
- The perfectly coordinated blonde singers... (I wonder... is blonde hair an entry criteria for all women vocalists in TSO??)
- The laser and fire works ofcourse!

And the piece de resistance... O Fortuna from their upcoming album.

One thing I strongly believe after watching TSO is that guys should have long hair ONLY if they play guitars or violins and they get to run around the stage banging their heads!! Oh my God! All of them had beautiful hair! And by the end of it, I was almost expecting the lead guitarist to break his guitar on stage! But I guess that's where they draw the line...

So if you have never watched TSO live before, please do!! Its worth every penny you spend on it!

PS: OK... so this picture sucks... But with so many lights (and no cameras allowed), this is the best I can do with my cell phone... and can't really ask the guys sitting in front of me to move their heads out of the camera's view, now can I?

Finally!

2008-11-05T13:07:00.001-08:00

Stephen Colbert (during Indecision 2008 - The election coverage in Comedy Central): "This is a night long overdue. At long last the US has fulfilled the greatest part of freedom, we have a President who is Hawaiian!"

I dont think I had any doubts about the outcome of this election. Its high time this country had a change... a positive one. But I am in withdrawal already. The last few weeks (if not months) of late night talk shows were so much fun! Tina Fey might not be too happy... now what will she do with the Sarah Palin costumes?!

Dyslexia

2008-09-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

I am a regular reader of the Scott Adams blog. Today's post was interesting - he is on the list of famous people who have dyslexia.

The first time I ever heard of dyslexia is 8 years back when I came to US. I did all my schooling in India. And in India (at least in the 1980s), if you had trouble reading or spelling, you are just someone who is not smart enough or you are too lazy to study!! You could never claim immunity behind an illness. No one that I grew up with was diagnosed with dyslexia. No one had ADD, ADHD or any of those fun illnesses. I never heard of anyone who was allergic to peanuts or is lactose intolerant. Coming to think of it, no one had restless leg syndrome either! I am not saying that none of these illnesses exist in India - these are unknown conditions and you just deal with it as part of day to day life!

I think this country is the most paranoid of the lot. Anything other than normal is scary. And normal itself is a very narrow category. The drug companies realized that they are sitting on a gold mine and started identifying all these illnesses. I don't mean to be insensitive to people who are afflicted with any of these illnesses. A headache might be a symptom of a lot of things. But it could also be just a headache!! You keep hearing these commercials of wonder drugs (which you have to ask your doctor about... apparently listening to the ad makes you a better diagnostician than someone who studied medicine for years!!). And you might have some of those symptoms. And so eventually you start thinking that you must be sick!

But then I digress... I was talking about dyslexia. Curiosity got the best of me and so I checked out the website to see who else is there in the list of famous people with dyslexia. And the first thing that caught my eye is this picture of Billy Banks - the Tae-Bo guy! Click on the image below for a larger view of the image.

Either whoever put this picture in this article has a good sense of humor or I have some illness that makes me spot such oddities.

And again...

2008-04-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

Apr 2006: Moved to my new apartment in Bangalore and went through all the madness related to the move
Apr 2007: Moved to WA and had to set up nest from scratch in Bellevue

Apr 2008: Moving to Issaquah

A new pattern, I guess. I am changing residence every year. This is a big deal for me. I am highly resistant to change! And I think its good to move away from comfort zones and take a chance, once a while. Lets see how it all pans out.

Jobs no more?!

2008-08-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

Everyone dies... someday or the other. We all expect it to happen later rather than sooner. But with cancer, the equation goes a bit out of balance. In 2004, Steve Jobs announced that he has pancreatic cancer. Forewarned is forearmed. The press started off on his obituary. Apparently it is common practice in media to have obituaries prepared for the rich and famous. But I guess someone in Bloomberg (the online media for business and financial professionals) decided to play God. Yesterday, they went ahead and published the obituary!

Obviously they retracted it. But not before Gawker caught hold of it. Read the 17 page obit at Gawker.

Mistakes happen. Since Jobs is not really "no more" yet, I am sure someones job at Bloomberg is no more! But it was interesting to read the obit. The list of people to contact for comments is pretty impressive including bigwigs from Oracle, Microsoft, Disney and Google. Among them is also an ex-girlfriend who "knows a lot of Silicon Valley insiders and may put us in touch with others". And the whole write up about his life makes an interesting read. Almost feels like I landed on his wiki page. The best part if where they talk about impact of his death on Apple stock price. And if the price drops, there is a separate paragraph already written on what to include!

The Old and the Beautiful

2008-09-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

I love gossip and drama as much as the next girl. And this year's election is starting to give soap operas a run for their money.

When I heard Palin's name as the running mate for McCain, it sounded like an awesome strategy. I am sure there were a good amount of women who would have voted for Hillary just because of her gender. When she got dropped off the race, there was a small trace of hope that Obama would choose Hillary as his running mate and by default, some of those votes would have gone to him. But then he didn't pick Hillary. So now some of the pro-Hillary voters would have decided not to vote at all and others would have been forced to evaluate whether they are actually democratic or republican.

And then comes the twist in the tale - Palin in the mix. I never thought McCain would choose a woman as a running mate. But it felt like a strategic move. She can pull some of the gender biased voters to her camp. But from the day the running mate was announced, it has been one drama unraveling after another.

Scene 1. Former beauty pagent runner-up announced as running mate
Scene 2. Rumors that Palin's youngest son born in April was actually the son of her daugher Bristol
Scene 3. Above rumor squashed by the announcement that 17 yr old Bristol is 5 months pregnant
Scene 4: 17 yr old Bristol will marry 18 yr old Levi (father of the child) and their failies claim it is NOT a shotgun wedding

Wow! Too much drama in too little time.

Now, lets step back and look at Palin's political views. She is a convervative Republican (is there any other kind??). She is pro-life and is opposed to abortion in all cases (including rape and incest) except when necessary to save the life of the mother. While running for governor in 2006, she supported abstinence-only sex education in Alaskan schools. She said "Explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support". And she favors capital punishment stating "We have a right to know that someone who rapes and murders a child or kills an innocent person in a drive by shooting will never be able to do that again".

After McCain announced his running mate, Palin addressed the crowds and said "It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all."

I am all in for shattering the glass ceiling. But equal opportunities to run the nation is not the only ceiling. Raising women to equal footing in the society starts with small steps. If a woman impregnated by rape cannot even choose whether she wants a constant reminder of the incident, what ceiling are we breaking? If abortion is killing, so is capital punishment. How can you be opposed to one and still support another? In both cases, we are taking a life that we cannot give back.

And looks like "abstinence only sex-ed" to horny teenagers doesn't work either! Love can be blind. And teenagers might want to get married before they get a chance to see the world or do something with their lives or get a job. And they might even want to raise children before they even figure out safe sex. But doesn't the pregnancy and the marriage plans sound very shotgun-ish? After all, the girl's mother is a vice presidential candidate and a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association!

I am not much into politics. But this race just got very interesting. We already know that the country prefers a black man over a woman president. Now lets see how the not-so-experienced black man and his "presidential candidate drop-out" running mate fares against the septuagenarian elitist and his "hockey mom" running mate.

Do you get it?

2008-09-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

I dont... wondering what? The Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ad for Microsoft. The first one was about the two of them buying shoes! The second ad started airing recently - Seinfelt and Gates living with a family so that they can get in touch with real people... WTF?!

Why is Microsoft paying money and admitting on air that they are out of touch with the real world? I am assuming there is a bigger picture here that will get clearer with subsequent ads. But they better get to the point fast 'coz I dont see any story building up in the first two ads.

The whole getting-Seinfeld-to-do-Microsoft-ad was so hyped up. I should have known that this is just like the movies... The more publicity the trailer gets, the more the movie sucks!!