After-effects of winter storm

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Winter Storm in New Mexico

Finally, the day temperatures are going to drop significantly. Thanks to the winter storm from Pacific Northwest.

Reminiscence

I was reminiscing my good-old school days after I read Chennai-Marooned.

Chennai is my hometown and I live in the outskirts of the city. It used to be like a sauna during summer. When I was in high school, the roads were not pucca.

Rains bought us cheer. Though, I was not able to go out and wade through the waters. I used to love the pouring rain from the balcony of my house. If it poured enough, the school would declare holiday.

I miss those untroubled high-school days.

Sunshine

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
— James Barrie

Health Condition

Yesterday’s sore throat advanced to cold, cough, sneeze, body pains, and intermittent fever. I am still taking Aleve as my primary medication. For temporary relief, I am drinking warm milk mixed with black pepper. This is a well-known in-house remedy in India for people who don’t like ingesting allopathic medicines into their body.

Socorro Balloon Rally

Today is the first day of the Socorro Balloon Rally. Since I woke up late I was not able to take many pictures. But, here is a collection of pictures that I took 2 years ago from the same event.

It was a beautiful day

Zicam

Today morning, I had a sore throat. Then, I heard a radio commercial that suggested the use of Zicam for quick remedy. I am going to take Aleve as that is what I have at home.

Peace, Love, and Gap

The rapper, Common, is seen sporting a hood in this holiday season of Gap's ads.
The lyrics of "Holiday In The Hood" (Source: Gap) is posted below:

It's the holidays these days are holy,
Warm like the days when my gramps would hold me,
Now I spend it with my daughter and my homies
Not far from home is where my soul be,
Fell into the Gap they rockin tha hood,
See peace in the streets when I stopped in the hood,
We gonna keep it alive like hip-hop in the hood,
It's good when the love don't stop in the hood,
It's a celebration like Dave Champipple,
Hugs to the fam and kisses under the mistle,
Toe when I flow feel the power that rap has,
People givin me love off seein my Gap ads,
Gifted like Christmas so I love to rap,

We gonna give it to the world peace, love, and Gap
(3x's)

"Holiday" Written by Lisa Stevens and Curtis Hudson

Here is the video (Source: Youtube):

I liked the music video and commercial of Gap, "How do you wear it?," featuring Lenny Kravitz and Sarah Jessica Parker. It failed to impress the customers and was a total marketing goof as many of the styles were not available in stores.

Dog Shows and Beauty Pageants

What would a model in a beauty pageant do when a judge is physically inspecting her?

Today, I watched a dog show on TV. I was wondering how the dogs would have felt when a judge was holding and feeling their teeth and touching them.

Dumpster

Someone’s trash may be a treasure for somebody else.

When people decide to move, they can leave really useful household things because they cannot take it with them. There was a herd of UHauls in my apartment complex last weekend.
I saw lots of mattresses, beds, tables, desks, etc. in the dumpster. I think it will be useful for the new students who move in at the beginning of the semester.

Dangerous World

The World is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.
— Albert Einstein

Parents and Children

Parents shower unconditional love on their children.

This is a cliché that does not become a trite saying. I recently experienced this thought about my father and mother. Parents always love spending money for their children.

I and Hidetaro Ito had a thought-provoking conversation about our respective parents.

Hidetaro is a graduate student. His parents were willing (actually wanted) to pay for his tuition. But, he declined any kind of financial support from them and paid from his own pocket. His mother was upset about this. She gifted him an iPod remote control knowing that he is an ardent iPod user. Since it is a gift, Hidetaro accepted the remote control. His mother was delighted.

My parents made huge sacrifices for me and my sister. Our parents reared and protected us from everything. We don’t know if they did it as a chore or out of love. But, they did it. My father earned day and night for the welfare of his children. He used to work hard, even on weekends, just to make our ends meet. I remember those days when, in spite of a busy schedule, he used walk me and my sister listening to our stupid babble and answering our innumerous number of “Why?”, “How?” type of questions. Parents enjoy spending all their earnings for the welfare of their children. They feel happy when the child succeeds. They put the children’s happiness above theirs.

Parents love decorating their children. They adorn their kids with all kinds of dresses and boast about their kids among their friends. And one fine day, the child grows up and declares independence declining everything their parents want to give. The parents are now distanced from the love of their life. They are forbidden from spending not only money but also time. The child does not have time to listen to his parents’ comments.

Hide argues that the parents feel sad for their inability to spend on their children, and I concur.

Money

The day, water, sun, moon, night — I do not have to purchase these things with money.
— Plautus

Be yourself

Today's quote from Paperquote.

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
— Gilbert Perreira

Monthly Visitor Activity

The first and second highest number of posts for this year is in January and June, respectively. On the contrary, the first and second highest number of visitors for this year is in January and August, respectively.

St. Joseph's College of Engineering

My alma mater, St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, has obtained the highest number of University ranks. As always, I am so proud of the students and the school.

Thanks to Yugan for emailing this news article.

St. Joseph's College of Engineering tops the list with 40 medals: Computer Science (3), Electronics and Communication (1), Electrical and Electronics (5), Electronics and Instrumentation (6), Instrumentation and Control (5), Mechanical (2), Chemical (7), Biotech (4) and Information Technology (7).

Test drive / Trial Version / Demo Version

This is an effective marketing strategy to promote a product.

My experience with trial / free products started with 7-up and Pepsi during the good old days when I was in elementary school. Since then, I am a big admirer of Pepsi. They hooked me up to their products early in my life.

Most of the Internet Service providers (AOL, Netzero, Earthlink etc) provide a trial period with free CD. The rationale behind these offers is that the customers will like and definitely use it in extended period. The same goes with various other software products.

A few days ago, I was given the manual version of Gillette Fusion to try. I currently use Gillette Mach III, which I started using after I received a trial pack.

And yes, I liked Gillette Fusion, and I am migrating from MACH III to Fusion.

Self-Centered

An interesting incident as narrated by Brijesh.

The people who come to US from India with this sense of self made pride about the jobs soon realize the hollowness of their pride once they are here. This happened almost 4 years back. One of the Professors from IIT came to my school for sabbatical in the Department of Electrical Engineering. I took him to the Social Security office to get his SSN card after a week he arrived in my school. There was a big queue in the SSN office. I told him to stand at the end of the queue. Instead he went to the security officer and told, “I am a Professor in this school. I am here to get my SSN”. The security officer told him to go and stand in the queue. He again told them about his credentials. The security officer replied, “ If you have come to apply for the SSN you have to stand in the queue. We don’t have a separate line for Professors”. He stood in the queue for more than 1 hour, did all the formalities and came out. On his way back he as so upset that he had to stay in the queue.

This reminded me of a similar incident in my school. Socorro is a very small town with not many hospitals around. One of the professors went to the student health center and demanded service since he is a “Professor” in the school. The doctor had to politely brush him off by saying that the health center is only for students. The professor was seriously offended by this act of the doctor.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

I have seen court room drama. But, the Senate floor drama has an excellent gripping finish.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is an old movie (1939). Nevertheless, the movie is worth watching with its classy dialogs and wit. It is widely known as a ludicrous example of filibuster in the United States Senate.

Flat Tire

I thought it was a simple affair.

A quick fix for a flat tire for a car is using the pressurized slime sealant. One caveat is if it is below 32F, it freezes and hence it does not function as desired. When I used this on the flat tire, it was not useful. I had to remove the wheel and take it to T&T tires on California Street in Socorro. The service personnel did a professional job. They were jovial and friendly to the customer.

ABQ Uptown Mall

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. I spent the afternoon and evening at the ABQ Uptown Mall . The directions to the mall can be found here.

It is an outdoor mall with a nice walkway. There are loudspeakers installed all throughout the path. I went to the mall twice today. The first time, I thoroughly enjoyed window-shopping/walking. The second time, I spent on AppleStore and SunGlassHut.

I happen to watch the first half of the Hindi movie Rocky. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

This phrase applies to personal hygiene.

I live with two roommates: God and books. God, an elderly gentleman, oversees the general well being of the house. He provides money, food, and blessings. My books provide me knowledge and company. As the only one who does not contribute to anything, I am left to clean my house.

The apartment is dusty, dirty, and muddy. Thanks to the sprinklers. Cleaning is long due. I finally need to take a break from “The Innocent Man” and start organizing the apartment. I guess creating checklists is a wonderful way of organizing.

Checklist for cleaning

1. Vacuuming the carpet
2. Dusting the ceiling
3. Scouring the sink
4. Mopping the floor
5. Cleaning the bathroom

Without much ado, I hope to make the house a pleasant abode for us roommates by the weekend.

Parched

I was thirsty in the afternoon. I heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of a vending machine and inserted a dollar bill. Out came a 12 oz Pepsi can. Now, look at the date on bottom of the can.

I am still parched.

Holiday Stamps

I am pleased to see that most of the common festivals of the holiday season are recognized. The United States Post Office is now selling these new holiday stamps.

Holiday Snowflakes

Christmas

Eid

Hanukkah

Kwanzaa

Santa’s smallest helpers

Holiday Cookies

All the photos are posted from www.usps.com

Schindler’s List

“Whoever Saves One Life, Saves The World Entire”

When I started playing this movie on my DVD player people said that it is a disturbing, depressing and upsetting movie. I somehow watched the movie completely over a span of one week. I reckon they did not watch the movie till the end. I agree that there were certain scenes that were downright upsetting. But, they justified the ending.


Schindler’s List is about the roster prepared by a bodacious business man, Oskar Schindler. He saves the lives of 1100 Jews during the Holocaust. I am not going to give up anything more about the ral story. Read Wikipedia entry for spoilers. Watch the movie till the end. The ghastly disturbing scenes are worth and are justified at the end. I highly recommend watching Schindler’s List.

It is not a surprising fact that this movie is currently rated 7th in the IMDB rankings.

Free access week from NY Times

What would you do if you are given free access best quality news articles? Download them and read it later.

This week, from Nov 6 to Nov 12, NY times is offering free access to selected articles. Check out the archives for more. It is available in PDF file format.

I guess this is an opportunity to read some of the best writings in fourth estate. Some of articles that I find interesting, in chronological order, are:

1. An Interview With Thomas A. Edison, Oct. 11, 1908
2. Sinking of the Titanic, April 16, 1912
3. Stock Market Crashes, Oct. 24, 1929
4. Review: Charlie Chaplin in City Lights, Feb. 7, 1931
5. Review: The I Love Lucy Show, March 31, 1954
6. Sneakers Cause Dismay, October 26, 1962
7. Moon Landing, July 21, 1969

Rainbow

Here is a rock with holes in it.

Fall Colors

Fallen Leaves

Fallen leaves lying on the grass in the November sun bring more happiness than the daffodils. — Cyril Connolly

Mail

I received this package in mail. See the note: "Open Immediately".



I opened the package to find some catalog. So, it directly went to the dumpster (not trash).

Halloween

Never upset the kids during Halloween Trick or Treat.

Yesterday was Halloween. Even though I did not participate in the Halloween costume party/contest, I like to be involved in the festivity. The trick-or-treaters started pouring in at around 6:00 pm. Soon, I was out of candies. Out of fear that I might disappoint the tots, I rushed to Smiths and got the candies. Not a single person stopped after that.