Random musings

IPL sucks

2008-05-12T13:03:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe that I have not posted anything to my blog for the past 18 months. I do not even know if the links in my blog works anymore. It directly coincides with the time I started working for esurance.

The whole IPL thing is blown out of proportion. BCCI got the whole idea from ICL and have basically multiplied everthing by 50 times which has swept people out of their feet all over the country. The amount of money paid for everybody is just ridiculous.

Advantages

1) More cricket
2) You see exciting mix of talents which you can only dream about play in the same team
3) Twenty20 format

Why it sucks?

1) All the money which would have pooled into different entertainment areas like cinema, hockey, etc are now getting channelled even more into cricket. If this trend continues for another year, Reserve bank might end up gettign loans from BCCI.

2) Atleast before students had brief time in between series to concentrate on studies but now it is just non stop cricket all the time. At a young age you just dont realise how much time you are wasting on cricket which could have been otherwise used to hone your skills

3) If Sehwag hits a monster six over long on, it seemed exciting before but now with so much cricket played, nothing seems exquisite.

4) Cheerleaders - This is the only thing that our youngsters were not exposed to, but now they have another reason to go to a cricket game.

5) Talents all around the world instead of aiming to cement a place in the national side are now only aiming to play a season for one of the IPL teams and settle for life after that. That is the ridiculous amount they are offering.

6) National cricket series will not have the same intrest as before because of the overkill.

7) With so many companies involved in the fray, this is not about cricket anymore, it is about a company trying to make profits at any cost, which opens the door again for match fixing.

Any more reasons required to get rid of IPL and go back to our original format?

Avril Lavigne - Complicated

2006-09-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Paartha Mudhal Naala - VV

Tagged by PK!

2006-08-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hi, Have been Tagged by PK! Sorry it has been a really late reply to your tag.

I'm thinking about: Calling shanawaz today.
I said: I am in a totally quiet environment now, i did not say anything !
I wish: I had more time to blog
I hear: only my typing sound
I wonder: if i will ever settle down in India
I regret: being lazy during my school and college days
I am: thinking hard for all the questions in this tag
I dance(d): only in my dreams
I sing: Rihanna's songs everyday.
I cry: rarely
I'm not always: in touch with my friends, need to improve that
I make with my hands: food, which does not turn out the way I want everytime!
I write: codes everyday
I confuse: about everything all the time.
I need: a house near my office
And finally: I would like to tag 10 bloggers who wish to write TAG.
1) Shanawaz
2) Deepak
3) Senthil
4) Military
5) Sathya Venkatesh
6) Sathya Priya
7) Sudarshan
8) Bharathi

It was fun to write it.

---Karthik Pandian

Vettayadu Vilayadu

2006-08-28T08:18:00.000-07:00

I watched the film yesterday in sunnyvale and I was very happy that I did. I have been waiting to see this film or for that matter a good tamil film, for quite some time. It is a rollicking thriller which keeps you in the edge of the seat for most of the time. Kamal has given a brilliant performance and cannot take your eyes of him through out the film. Editing, direction and music is also a very high point of the movie. Kamal had good on screen chemistry with the new actress than with jothika. Mind you, the film is full of gory scenes against woman and wacky in general but it is no where close to the unnecessary violence we saw in Pudu pettai. The revelation in the movie is Balaji, who is the psychic serial killer in the movie. His performance is commendable. I thought the second half could have been a little more slick with songs at inappropriate times but neverthe less worth watching. If you want to see a good hollywood style of action thriller in tamil, just get the next available ticket and go for it.

--Karthik Pandian

Caltrain Internet

2006-07-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

You must be wondering why I had to change my template and do so much stuff if i am not going to post conyinously for 2 weeks. Well but I relocated to a new place, started work in a new company. Everything was new for me, half the time I did not have access to internet so did not post much. Last weeks have been busy and interesting. Sleep has been short, never have I before got up so early and traveled 50 miles to goto work on time. I used to strugle to go on time to Intel which was just 5 minutes from my house.

Work wise, nothing interesting yet, just going thru some codes and trying to get upto speed. There is a free Internet in caltrain called mockingbird which no one seem to mention anywhere except for one blog. It is pretty good speed for free. I am not sure if it is available in old trains, but it is mostly available in the new trains.

Going to yosemite today, should post more from next week.

--Karthik Pandian

Funny Ad

2006-06-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

I must be really bored today, this is my third post for the day. Thanks to kiruba, I found this really funny and wanted to post in my blog. Click the image for watching the ad, it is really good. Check this link if you like the ads.

Euro Cup 2004 Top 10 Goals

2006-06-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Trip to Oregon

2006-06-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

I am totally vetti after finishing my work in Intel last Wednesday. Went to Lake Crater, OR last friday and returnded on Sunday evening. Lake crater is a unique in a way the rims of the mountains form the perimeter of the lake . It is the deepest lake in North America and the deep blue colour catches your eye. Oregon is full of mountains, lakes, rivers and water fulls and is very scenic. Will post pictures from the trip soon.

---Karthik Pandian

Google US Government

2006-06-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

Google has launched Google US government search today. All te tax forms you will be looking for in the last minute, processing dates for H1 etc everything now you can search for it in this site now. You can look for addresses, phone numbers for all the local and federal organisations using this site.In short it specifically searched .gov web sites.

---Karthik Pandian

Happpy Times

2006-06-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Intel contract is getting over tommorow. My next job is scheduled to start only on 26th and I have all the time in the world. I can play tennis, play basketball, watch soccer whole day, and even browse for the whole day. I can possibly have a trip to cleveland for free if i am interested in attending a on site interview.

I am thinking of doing something innovative to my blog during this time. i am thinking of having email interview if i can catch hold of some big names. I am definitely going to try out podcasting and a possible change of layout for the blog. Thanks to techcrunch I am inspired what one can do within a year. Last 3 or 4 days at work, I had absolutely nothing to work on. I am simply roaming around campus, talking to people and enjoying all the farewell talks with the people (like where are you working next, good work for the past one year :-), we are going to miss u).

Expect a lot more changes in my blog, better quality. Happy Soccer Watching for all soccer fans.

---Karthik Pandian

Google Spreadsheets - First Look

2006-06-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Google SpreadSheets

Google has unveiled its newest product which aims at replacing one of Microsoft's strongest - Excel. Although the latest release is no where near the Microsoft Excel but since it is a Google product, it is free and web based, allows easy sharing and easy to use.

You could invite other people to edit the file parallely or you could invite them just to view it when you make changes. You could add more sheets easily. THey have implemented a lot of functions in it and it also autosaves just like your gmail drafts.

The major disadvantages are you cannot print it, no chart types available and also there is no pivot table. Well since it is free, there is no harm in trying this new ajax based product. You need to provide your email address to get into a queue and when your turn comes you might get the invite. Happy Googling!

--Karthik Pandian

Fanaa Review

2006-06-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

I was a bit reluctant to watch the movie after the average performace in the first week it has run. But it turned out to be much better than my expectation. Kajol is beautiful in her comeback movie after marriage and Amair Khan is at his usual best. I was kind of wondering where could they take this story from here on , after watching an hour but it takes a interesting twist before the interval. There is a lot of emotion in the second half but never the less interesting. Songs are ok and the movie is watchable once. This is not a movie which you will flong the theatres in a group but rather watch it quietly.

Moving

2006-06-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

Weekend has been nice. Friday was working late and came home, saw Thalapathi after a long time. Today I had to move second time within the last two months but had a nice dinner in Cheesecake factory and watching a movie at 3 am in the morning.

Lately I am criticised badly about the review I have written for Pudupettai, I can only suggest but if you want to still see the movie, it is your wish! I am wondering how come suddenly I am getting a lot of references from Google especially about the post for rapidshared and pudupettai. Will be watching Fanaa today, and will try to write a review if possible.

---Karthik Pandian

Pudhupettai sucks

2006-05-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

I had unfortunately seen the movie Pudupettai over the weekend. Even after seeign the reviews in sify and rediff, I decided to watch the movie eventhought I had to drive 4 hrs back and forth to San Jose. I was disappointed to see a movie like this from Selvaraghavan. Eventhough the first half keeps you interested in the movie, the second half is a total killer. It drags on and on and keeps you wondering if the movie is going to ever end. He loses the plot and there are some scenes which are difficult to understand as well. Danush as a dada is unbearable, instead of being competant with Simbu, this film actually proves he is yet to even reach TR's level. Sonia and sneha are wasted in the movie, unlike previous films from Selva where women usually have powerful roles.

The film is full of blood and gross scenes. There are numerous scenes which are straight lift from God Father. On the whole, a total flopper.

Never watch it!

--Karthik Pandian

i cannot think of a title

2006-05-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I didn't do anything but still it is already a dull Monday morning. Friday was as usual , Pizza and movie time. Watched da Vinci Code, liked the movie even though I have not read the book. I especially liked the way the historic scenes were made out. It is a treat to the eyes. Everyone matched the roles of their characters except for Tom hanks.

I cannot imagine the fact that the truth behind the whole movie was from a picture drawn by Leonardo da Vinci who lived between 1452 and 1519. How can a person who lived 1452 AD can potray a event(Last Supper) which happened such a long time before. What is so interesting is when I think of Leonardo, the thing that comes to my mind is Mona Lisa but he is much much more than that. He was a pioneer in inventing new weapons of war. He was called a architect, sculptur, engineer pianist, musician and whatevr profession u can think of. I would rather love to see a movie about him than some based on his paintings.

Sat and Sun was mostly lazing at home and hanging out with friends. Yet to be out from the weekend mood.

--Karthik Pandian

Big Apple

2006-05-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Apple is opening a store in the busy fifth avenue (NY). Touted as one of the architecturally innovative retail stores, NY city is sure to be hit with the ipod magic. The store is planned to be open 24/7 throughout the year. Shoppers have anxiously waiting from yesterday evening itself to have a glimpse of the latest technology. The glass cube in the entrance is said to be inspired by I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. Well if you near by , you should surely check it out.

I am also happy about the fact that this is my 100th post!!!!!! Never would I have thought that I would be able to reach 100 albeit a little late! Thanks everyone who are visiting my blog regularly.
Happy Friday!
----Karthik Pandian

Tags: apple, nyc, 100 post

Bad Driving???

2006-05-17T08:01:00.000-07:00

I was checking youtube for funny videos about driving. Found this one in Russia for crazy driving..Check it out

---Karthik Pandian

Technorati Tags : Bad Driving, Youtube

Generally....

2006-05-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Since not many are interested in the ridiculous amount of links I post in my bloc everyday I have decided to reduce it. I am bored of my work here in Intel. Last week I was totally stressed out because I had a very aggressive deadline for a project I was working onUT now since I am moving to some other company in matter of time, I am so bored. There is no motivation to excel in what I am doing. I am just doing it for formality.

It is also difficult to get out of a slack period like this. For someone who browses so much for new links, trust me most of the time I don't know which website to browse.

I feel sorry if ur still reading....I am in a very bad mood now, angry with myself for nothing.
Will post something useful later . Look at this link for something WEB2.0

--PK

Unknown Google Links

2006-05-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

We are very familiar with most of the new products that google launch from time to time. But , still there are many products which did not take off from Google labs. Some of them does not even adhere to the Google standards we have got accustomed to over the years.I am listing some of them here

Google Mothers Day
Google Easter Eggs
Google's Official Biker
Google News Letter
Google Dance
Google Sets
Google Stock

--Karthik Pandian

Ajax Sites

2006-05-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

I was fascinated looking at this website in a developers perspective. Everyone by now knows about Google suggest and how good it works for us but to use that principle and come up with a website like this is amazing. Start typing something in the search box and as you type , the space below shows you the product search results with images from amazon. The speed at which tht results are shown with images is incredible. Also I was impressed about the way you can mouse over your search history on the left and the speed at which the results cached are shown.

If you are interested in more sites like this check out www.wsj.com . On the web page just choose some word and right click, a list box shows up giving the search results for that particular word in their site.

Things like these keep me motivated as a programmer.

--Karthik Pandian

Windows Live Shopping

2006-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Windows Live shopping Beta is available from today. I was suprised at the number of products which are already available in the website. It's main usage is to find the price of a product at different retailers at the same place. They claim to be more real time than some of the existing web sites. Another tool for you to decide before buying something. They dont support browsers other than IE.

--Karthik Pandian

Yahoo Go!

2006-04-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Go is available live from today. It is like a DVR for your TV. It allows you to view Yahoo's content in your TV and also allows you to record shows from TV. Recently Yahoo purchased DVR company Meedio to get this functionality. Mind you, they claim that you can do it only in US.

--Karthik Pandian

Digg

2006-04-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

If you are a frequent digger, you should definitely check this link
Slashdot and wirednews are other good sources for technology news.

--Karthik Pandian

Opera Browser

2006-04-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Opera has opened up its browser for public. You can download it for free here.

Features of theses include speed,secured,easily customisable, email program, rss news feeds,IRC chat, pop up blocker, tabbed browsing. Other interesting thing it is voice enabled. You can say opera back, opera link and it will do it for u. Anyways try it yourself

--Karthik Pandian

Online Videos

2006-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

One of the noticeable changes in Web 2.0 without doubt is online videos. Ever since Google came up with the Google video theme , there were so many sites which are coming every week for videos. Youtube founders has made it big as new found celebrities of bay area from being a regular mid twenties guys who were struggling to pay their debts. One of the features for myspace being so popular is thier video as well.

Click.Tv are the next big thing witing to happen in this category. They have a demo site up and no one knows when they are going to be up. They have a novel idea of allowing sers to add annotation anytime in the stream. For example if we are watching a cricket match, right at the time when sachin is getting bowled I would add "Sachin's wicket". The next user can click the annotation and go directly to that stream. Macromedia has to be appreciated for its efforts as it allows developers to do anything with the flash.

But the main issue facing all these sites is the ease with which a tennager can access porn in their sites. When on an average 50,000 videos are updated in your site everyday, tracking the content of those becomes a himalayan task.
JumpCut is another cool website I have bookmarked!

Here is a link for a freebieFinder. Ensoii

--Karthik Pandian

Google Services and Tools

2006-04-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

Google Services and Tools

Google integreated the calendar with gmail services from yesterday. If you have noticed, when u open to compose a mail, you see a link for add event info in the right corner where you can add event details.

Yahoo hasmeanwhile release Yahoo Maps with satellite images from all over the world. They also claim that their resolution is now one meter per pixel for U.S. locations and 15 meters per pixel for the rest of the world which is far superior than Google or MS maps. So much for the maps, that even now AOL has got the shots. Their mapquest is far superior than both yahoo or google, so they still attract more traffic than the other two combined!

-Karthik Pandian

Latest News in your area

2006-04-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

I found a website where you can enter your zip code and the UI shows google maps and it also gets news from Yahoo news , google news and yahoo traffic. Check out the link here. Well he has taken advantage of both worlds(Google and Yahoo) and has came up with a terrific interface.

Other good thing I am playing with today is Google Calendar. Its interface is implemented with ajax, so it is fast. You can get remainders as pop up or in email or as an sms. You can drag and drop events. Views are by day, week or month. You can add invitees as you do in Microsoft outlook. Another cool feature is there is a quick add event, where you can say Pk birthday Nov 26 and it adds to your calendar on Nov 26 or you can say tommorow 4 pm coffee with Boss. Its pretty cool, check it out.

Web based excel tool - check it out here.

--Karthik Pandian

Correction - It does not get Yahoo News. It is Google Maps + Yahoo Geocoding + Google News RSS Feeds + Yahoo Traffic. Thanks for correcting me Virendar. Now you can also look for indian restaurants and near movie theatres using that link. Great job Virendar!

Rapidshared

2006-04-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Most of you must have been familiar with rapidshare.de, a site which allows u to upload files and share it with others. Most of u must have downloaded lot of stuff using rapidshare :-)
There is a website which you can search for the files present in rapidshare and download looking at their category.

You can look at this link for the site. Also if you were ever frustrated about their 1 hr time, here is another software to bypass that wait time. Simply give the html link to these downloaders and they will download it one at a time. They are Rapget and Grabber.
Happy Downloading!

Check out Google's new tool Page Creator here. Kind of neat for a web interface. Also google has come out with a new web calendar.

--Karthik Pandian

Musicians Toilet

2006-04-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

Pattiyal

2006-04-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

Watched pattiyal lately, it was not very good i should say. With so much hype, I was actually disappointed after watching the movie. I was always waiting for something to happen and that something never happened. Why is it a big hit?

Who the hell is Johnny Knxoxville?

2006-03-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

I used a face recognition software and what it does is it takes a sample of ur face and matches it with celebrity database they have. I was matched with some Johnny Knoxville!!@!@#
Try yours at this link

Weekend Plan

2006-03-24T11:11:00.000-08:00

Life was so boring in the past 1 or 2 months after I came back from India that even an Friday evening did not excite me much. But today for some reason, even though I did not do much work this week, I am happy that it is Friday today. Maybe getting back my tax returns may be one of the reasons!

Forgot to tell u all that Mr. Dinesh of EEE is my new roommate now and he is also working in Intel, the place to work! Other good thing is I am drinking Tequila and margarita now a days. I loved the feeling of getting high and hopefully shouldnt get addicted to it.

From now on I am going to write some of my weekly highlights (highs and lows) o Friday
This weeks
-- Talked to Suma's Dad(Should come in all time list actually)
-- Learned a lot abt Visual Studio 2005 SSIS
-- My tax returns
-- Interview with Hitachi

Ok everyone have a great Weekend

Small Things that irritate everyday

2006-03-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

There are so many small things that irritate everyday andwe have no control over it. These are some of my irritations

1) Getting up in the morning (Obviously everyones)
2) The moment I enter my work place
3) Checking ur email and find out there are no emails :-(
4) Manager giving u a task just before lunch or when ur abt to leave
5) thought that ur not going anywhere with ur present job
6) u have thousand things u need to do at home but ur in office doing nothing
7) india lose in a cricket match the previous night and u cannot read news that day
8) u want to study everyday and u hardly in reach of a book
9) fail to charge ur phone everyday
10) u call 3 or 4 persons in a row and nobody picks up ur phone
11) there is a small file u cannot delete from ur system

I cannot write abt it a whole day but i have a irritating meeting to attend now :-
Add your 2 cents to it?

Back at last

2006-03-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

For a minute i forgot how to adda new post to the blog. It has been ages since I made my last post. Well, trip to India, full time job interviews and a hell lot of work can keep anyone away from blogging for a while. But hoping to post more frequently from today

PK

Lake Margaret

2005-10-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting in my blog for a while. I am in middle of some serious work here, so might not post a lot even in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, I went hiking at a place near by Lake Tahoe. Check out the snaps i took there with my new digital camera(SONY CYBERSHOT). Have a release today, so gotto go.

Karthik Pandian

Funny

2005-10-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I wanted to write about something very funny which happpened last week but I thought Ghuru will feel very bad about it. But across the same story in his blog today, thought will share it wih all if he doesnt mind revealing it in his blog. Mind you he has played down the tone of the comedy a little bit. Read it from here.

Karthik Pandian

My take on Gajini

2005-10-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Note: I am not going to reveal anything reg the movie which you wouldn't want to know

Pros:

Obviously, Surya is carrying the movie on his shoulders but suprisingly Asin gives out a charming performance.
Excellent chemistry between Surya and Asin.
Decent Comedy.
Background music and songs(Especially Suttum Vizhi).
Clarity in revealing the past.
First half is great.

Cons:

Nayantra (but she does create a buzz during the X machi song)
Villain has no punch.
No logic or what so ever in the movie.
Definately no where near Kakha Kakha if that is what you are expecting.
Second half drags a bit and there is nothing to speak about the climax.

Karthik Pandian

Internet all the way

2005-10-04T21:59:00.000-07:00

How internet is affecting everybody's life is very amazing. Frequent mail checks, all the answers you want for your work related questions, finding a place, directions to go somewhere, bank accounts, bill pay, blogging and what not? I feel addicted to it sometimes. The three internet gaints Yahoo, google and microsoft are in a mission to rule the net. While yahoo being always growing steady since it inception, gooogle has been growing leaps and bounds everyday. Google with its maps, google earth and of course its search engine is always threatening to dethrone yahooo as the world's best but yahoo is doing their bit as well.

Well with Google and Sun reaching an agreement now, there is no stoppimg it. THey have vowed to give free internet to the world. So much for information sharing!

Yahoo has come with its own version for reading books online. We all know how google's plan got backfired because of copyright problems. But unlike google, yahoo is paying for indexing the materials and also planning to make it available to alll the search engines. Look at here for more info.

Karthik Pandian

India - Third World Country

2005-09-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Rain in New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina...18.0 inches
Rain in Mumbai (July27th)...................................... 37.1inches

Population of New Orleans... 484,674
Population of Mumbai.... 12,622,500

Deaths in New Orleans within 48 hours ofKatrina...100
Deaths in Mumbai within 48hours ofrain..................... 37.

Number of people to be evacuated in New Orleans...entire city
Number of people evacuated inMumbai........................ 10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in New Orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in Mumbai...........NONE

Time taken for US army to reach NewOrleans................. 48 hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reachMumbai...12 hours

Status after 48 hours...New Orleans was stillwaiting for relief, army and electricity
Status after 48 hours...Mumbai was back on its feet and ! it was business asusual .

And they call India a third world country!!!!!

Got tagged

2005-09-07T14:59:00.000-07:00

Fever has tagged me and so here i go:

Seven things I plan to do before I die:

1) Watch cricket world cup finals in the ground
2) Earn lots and lots of money
3) Eat pizza in Italy
4) Learn to Swim
5) Drive a Ferrari
6) Want to set up an organisation to help the homeless children in India to get a decent education and help them advance in career something like aid india.
7) Want to see all the seven wonders of the world

Seven things I can do:

1) Can do a bit more exercise
2) Eat less outside
3) Get things done today instead of tommorow
4) Attend to my phone calls
5) Shave atleast once in a week
6) Stop being lazy
7) Read more

Seven things I cannot do:

1) Be within my cell phone minutes
2) Pay my bills in time
3) Work the full 8 hrs all the 5 days in a week
4) Stay without checking email for more than 2 days
5) Eat NV
6) Get up early
7) Swim

Seven things that attract me in opposite sex:

1) Lips
2) Eyes
3) Hair
4) Caring nature
5) Independent
6) Must love computers!
7) Must love to travel around!

Seven things I say most:

1) machi
2) otha
3) super
4) F**K
5) worstu
6) soothu
7) freeya vidu

Seven celebrity crushes:

1) Simran
2) Radha
3) Salma hayek
4) Catherine Zeta Jones
5) Shilpa shetty
6) Anna Kournikova
7) Jessica Simpson

Seven people I would like to tag:

1) Shanawaz
2) Ghuru
3) Sanjay
4) Deepak
5) Suguna
6) Gautham
7) Narendran

By tagging what I mean is you need to do the same post to your blog.

Karthik Pandian

Trip to Denver

2005-09-07T08:34:00.000-07:00

The weekend trip was a refreshing one after what was going on at my work for the past 2 or 3 months. It was great to meet up with old friends and have fun like old times. When manoj and anand is with you, there is always bound to be a lot of comedy,lots of head rolling and kadi blades[don't just think of ghuru alone] around you. Colorado is a beautiful state with mountains, gold mines and lakes. All the big cities seemed little small and the place looked little sleepish. I do believe this is the wrong time to goto denver if you really want to enjoy there. The main attractions in the state are the rocky mountains national park, Cave of The Winds ,Garden of the Gods,Seven Falls South Cheyenne Canyon, Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway and the Royal Gorge bridge.

Rocky mountains is more famous for the skiing, lake grand and trekking. Skiing is ruled out this time of the year and none of us were inclined to trekking, so we just had to contend with the lake , boat ride in it,and ofcourse the beauty of the mountains(which would have been even more spectacular during fall time). Royal gorge bridge was an eye cacher as well. We missed the train to the peaks at manitou by a whisker and instead took a few pictures out there and went to garden of gods. Seven falls looked appealing because of its lighting effects rather than the falls.

I fell in love with a song in Thiruvasagam Symphony during the trip and after searching quite a few forums yesterday. Everywhere I go I could only see instructions to buy the cd rather than downloading. Probably I was little late to realise that even the songs of Aah Aah is good.

I was supposed to have loads of work to do when I returned to work yesterday but they changed the requirements yesterday in a meeting and the latest requirements needs very little work from my part and all the more relaxed today. I have uploaded some of the tour pictures, you can view them here.

Karthik Pandian

Hard Fact

2005-09-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

US being one of the super powers of the world right now, cannot even manage to shift thousands of people from a flooded city to a nearby one. They have all the money in the world to do it, world class facilities, several hundred skilled technicians who can do magics from their laptops at home but yet there are thousands packed in a stadium without air, water, food and other basic sanitary conditions and it is almost 5 days since the storms have abated, still these people dont know what their future is. I am also very depressed about the fact their own media are calling their own citizens as refugees? If this is the case in a country like United States, just imagine the plight of so many African countries who lack everything on their own and solely depend on foriegn aid for their surival. I dont see how they are going to help iraq or afghanistan when they can't help their own people.

Looks like I am watching a lot of CNN recently.

Latest Update: Sania Mania is driving the country crazy, she has won her 3rd round match and wil meet Sharapova in the 4th round. Even an Indian victory against New Zealand will not be a big story in tommorow's paper.

I am off to Denver today. Will post on Tuesday next.

Karthik Pandian

Sania thru to 3rd round

2005-08-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

Sania Mirza has won her 2nd round match (US Open) against maria elena camerin of Italy in 3 sets. Next she meets Marion Bartoli of France. No wonder she is getting popular all over the world.

No respite

2005-08-31T08:04:00.000-07:00

My first project is already in the production server and there is still no escalaton about it from any one. I could not even enjoy that as I am already dumped with another release deadline for next Wednesday and in between there is a holiday trip to denver as well. It is getting a bit too pushy at work now a days, but that is how it is everywhere I guess, I cannot complain too much about it.

There is something deep within me always telling me to look for a full time position as soon as possible but because of the fact that I am doing so well as a consultant in my present job, and it is also a good learning curve.

If anyone is contemplating between looking for a full time and consultant position, here are a few points you might want to think about. The major advantages with Consulting positions are these are easy to get in big companies, just an phone interview and in a couple of days you will be already started working in the company in which you could have only dreamed of. You will get to learn a lots of technical details in a short while if you are a consultant as you are put from one project to another very quickly. Nobod monitors you like an owl as in a full time position but it is your responsibility to finish off the job given to you. As a consultant , most of the times you willl not be working on a fresh project, it will mostly be just some changes in an already existing app or changes to codes due to upgradation of some software etc, but mind you might have to know a lot more understanding to work on a already existing project. Finally I would say the demerits are you dont get recognition for your work from anyone, you will most probably dealing with a bunch of indians as your employers which would surely mean unprofesionalism in everything. Most of the benefits you would associate with a full time position is virtually non existant or very limited. If there is some kind of financial unrest in your group, consultants are the first one fired in the event. Career growth is very very limited.

When it comes to full time position, the picture is little bit more rosy. You will deal with professional set up, great benefits, great career growth eventhough the salary might be little less than what a consultant would get. You will get recognition for your work. It need not be necessary that you are working on some app which is already built. But you might be stuck with an app for a long time. There might be constant patrolling of your work hours. As always there is a risk with a software job, to be fired one fine Friday morning

If you are an fresher andif you are looking for a software job what I would suggest, just choose whatever platform you are going to work, find a consultant who is a direct vendor with big companies and who have a good marketing team. Work as a consultant in some big company for 6 to - 9 months and then look for a full time position there after. So the 6 months you work as a consultant is very crucial and I am blogging in that time. I would rather get back to work now.

Karthik Pandian

Red Eye

2005-08-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Friday night movie was Red Eye, last weekend. The main problem with the movie is that they have revealed more than half the movie in the trailer itself. Even though you wont feel bored watching the movie, it is not a thriller as touted by some of the movies. But surely by far one of the best movie running right now. Predictable!

Sat I want all the way to Sunnyvale just to watch, had luch at Spice Hut and went for Mangal Pandey. Original intent was to go for ONOK but since Ghuru has already seen it and he had very adverse comments about the movie, we decided not to watch it. I thought I will learn a bit more about mangal Pandey from the movie,but there was nothing notable. Looks like there is no good documentation about him. There is very less history and there is even a item number in the film which does not fit the movie at all. Not a great movie!

Oh Yeah! My house is totally networked now! Wireless network printing, scanning and faxing is possible. Copier is available, too much for my house.

Long time...

2005-08-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

I thought that my first project was over and eve posted it in the blog abt how happy i am about completing my first project and stuff, but actually it is getting over only today. It is taking too much of my time, it has been ages since I have been to other blogs which was one of my favourite things to do in the morning.

Good to know that there so many of my friends who have started blogs recently. You could find Sanjay's blog here, ghuru's blog here and deepak's much publicised story blog here. I am very very very much looking forward to his weekend. Last weekend I was so sick that I felt like worse than the week days and the weekend before that I shifted my apartment and it was totally tiring.

For guys who know Naveen Vaidhya, here is some good news, he is going to join Intel Arizona on Tuesday as a .NET Developer and wish him all the very best for it.

I am into collecting movies in DVD format. I have got a DVD burner probably 2 or 3 months old, recently got a 50 pk DVD media as well and I am writing all the movies I rent from blockbuster.

Word of Mouth is that Red Movie is good, so check it out this weekend.

Moving to a new apartment

2005-08-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Recently moved to a new apartment and realized how much stuff I had accumulated over the past 6 months with out my knowledge. The moving was a big pain as my new apartment is in 3rd floor and there was no elevator. But now its all over, I can sit back and relax in my new apt which is more spacious and it is pretty new. I am showing the enthusiasm of buy a new house for actually moving into another rented house.

The sudden closure of the general H1B quota made me to come out of my shackles and apply for my H1B this week itself. Still relaxing and not yet started my second projects since there is still some minor glitches here and there in my first project.

Yet to hear the music of aah aah, getting great reviews abt it.

PK

Back again

2005-08-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting for such a longgggg time. Unfortunatley I got committed to work and I was not able to write my blog or read others as well. My first project is almost over and it needs to be tested and little documentation needs to be done also. After toling in it for the past 2 months I am happy that I am competant enough to do something on my own and within a specific timeline. There were times I had to sit on it for a couple of days for a silly mistake, I had spend time just because you were not given proper access to something you need because of company's restrictions and also lost some changes I made and had to redo a lot of stuff again which was painstaking. But the whole point is the application I developed is up and running now and I learned a lot of technical as well as other aspects of a project. Looks like i am in the hype of completing my first project at Intel.

The movies I have seen during the past 2 weeks have also come down drastically. But i did not miss the cricket matches, which i should seriously avoided after seeing the way indians played. Have been to RENO in one of the weekend and it has nothing when compared to Las Vegas, but the drive to reno is awesome especially Lake Donner, it was a wonderful sight.

Anyways I will get back to work now and hopefully I will be able to post more often from now on.

Karthik Pandian

Lots of planning but..

2005-07-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

I planned a lot for this weekend, but nothing went according to it. We planned to goto Monterey on sataurday and watch "priyasakhi' in Sunnyvale on the same night. And the plan on Sunday was to goto san francisco and to a choclate festival in a science museum there.

Sataurday, it was around 12, we left for sunnyvale to pick up Ghuru enroute to Monterey. We did pick up ghuru at 3, went straight to an Indian restaurant and then we goto ghuru's house again to give him time to take bath. Time is almost 5:30, so we decided to stay and watch the movie rather than going to monterey that late. Again, we had to go out and eat and we reached he theaer at 7:40 for a 8pm show. I didnt want the agony of standing and watching a movie again as I did for Anniyan.

We get our tickets and we were the first to get in and while we wait for the trailers, our bad luck returns. The current goes off and we were told it will come only by 9pm. We waited patiently in the dark with so much perserverance and at 9 : 10 we finally ran out of it and decided to cancel the tickets we got. Just when I was about to cancel, light comes and the whole crowd gasps! The movie begins, maddy is introduced in a weird looking hairstyle and with a big tummy. He goes to dubai and meets a model(sadha)..................The current goes off again. And thats the end of the tamil story. We were not the one to be bogged down by this, we went for "Wedding Crashers" a 10:00 in a nearby amc theatre.

As usual I got up lae on Sunday morning and after having a buffet in Passage to India, we went to San francisco. We were hoping to be in time for the choclate festival and when we finally reached the museum, we came to know hatwe have come to a wrong place. The choclate festival is taking in another museum which is miles away from where we are. But we had a look at the the exploratorium( which is more like the science thing we have in kotturpuram) and then return home hoping to have a better weekend the next time around.

PS: We always refers to me and my girl friend

Cricket

2005-07-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

If you would like to watch the Ashes and the tri series in which India is going to play for a low price, add mailmeatajay2003 in yahoo messenger. He has a site for seeing it online which is as good as seeing it on willow tv or anything else. Chat with him and get both for a very low price. I got it for 35$. Enjoy!

Stole these pics

2005-07-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

I stole these pics from military's blog but I couldnt resist posting it in mine. I remember very well about the first picture, it was around the end of our last semester and all these fellows from eee, were bringing water in buckets and splashing it on evrybody. Unfortunately I was also a victim of it that day. The whole place looked like one kaleej sakkadai because of that. Notice Naveen Vaidhya in the middle of the pic and korangu Vikram somewhere in the left all psyched to join the fun. I am wondering where dinesh and suman are?
Suman is that you talking to a girl in the top left corner??

Looks like the management doesnt want these things to happen again and it is entirely different now!Hmm! Ok let me get back to work.

2005-07-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

I have been away from blog for a long time now. I have been struck with documentation work for the past 3 days and I am hoping everything should be over today(and hopefully more time to blog). A couple of days work and I will be done with my first project here. I am lined up with 2 more projects already, so its going to be fun.

Busy with changing my house as well, as we had to have a look at a whole lot of apartments. Yesterday, I played cricket with my Intel friends in a hockey stadium and it was nice. I am playing after quite a while and the very first time with a cricket ball. It was burning hot yesterday when wer were playing and I had inkling of what it is to play a test match in Chennai during summer. You can easily lose 5 - 10 kgs if you are playing a long innings.

It has become like school days now, counting for friday to come even on a Tuesday. Everything is setting in to be monotonous now and I am wondering what else I can do to break it.

Brindha, thanks for your comments. We can chat during this weekend sometime about the graduate schools. Can you just post some convenient timings?

Waiting for the srilanka tri seies to start, its been a very long time since I got to see a cricket match live. If you want to see the entire series for 30 dollars online , ask me how?

Bored

2005-07-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

Whole day I have been writing the project requirements documentation and I am pissed of with Microsoft word. Formatting tookme more than 1 hr, very frustrated! But Friday is here, time to enjoy!

2005-07-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an happening day at my work. Finished lots of work and also learned a lots of new things. Hoping to squeeze in the MCSD certification within the next 6 months.

Sacramento is very very hot now, fells like I am in Chennai right now. Actually it is worser than it, it is so dry and even at 8PM, it is so hot, atleast in Chennai we had the luxury of sea breeze setting in the evenings. Looks like I have to put up with this weather for another 2 months. I can withstand the worst winters in Buffalo but not the hot weather like this.

Yesterday had to scan two papers, since it was late I went to Kinko's to scan it and did it without asking for the price. When he rung me up the counter, I was shocked to see it as 10.6 for two pages. Can you imagine paying 550rs for scanning two pages?? I have been to Kinkos twice, I had to be contend with high prices both times. I could have actually got a scanner for around 40$ instead of paying 10 for 2 page scan.

For the first time I used Sify to order 'Harry Potter' for my brother. First of all creating and updating the profile was a big hassle, later ordering the book and editing the shipping address and billing was so bad that I have decided to try rediff or fabmall the next time. Does anybody like Harry Potter here?? I saw the last released version and I didnt like it a wee bit.

MASAT is making waves all around he blogs i read. I would also love to join it but as I am too lazy to go and pick the codes and apply it to my settings. But, military looks like you are in a mission to earn some money thru this nonsense sorry adsense. Earning 31$ for a day is too much.

Some blades from a forward

A Chinese pair accidentally had twins withoutgetting married, Guesswhat they named them...
Jo Hua, So Hua.

*******************************************************************
Wife : Honey ..... What are You Looking for ?
Husband : Nothing.
Wife : Nothing...?? U've been reading our marriage certificate 4 anhour ..??
Husband : I was just looking 4 the expiry date.

*******************************************************************

2 Dost Suicide karne gae, Pahala : "Hey Bhagwan mujedunia ki saarinafrat de Pareshani de Duk de!"
Dusra dost : "Abe tumaut maang raha haiki Reliance mai Job.

*******************************************************************

Q - What is the Difference Between Mother & Wife ?
A - One Woman Brings U into this world crying... & the other ensures U Continue to do so.

*******************************************************************

How can a Sardar Kill a Lion ?
Sardarji thinks N thinks hard & comes to a conclusion: I'll drink poison n let lion eat me. O' bolo tara ra.

*******************************************************************Sardar to his friend "I kiss my Wife everyday beforeleaving for Office,what about you?"
Friend : Me too, after you leave.

*******************************************************************

Sardar : Sitting on The Top of the Mountain andStudying.... When aPerson asked what he was doing.... He replied...Oye!! HigherStudiesYaar...!!!

*******************************************************************

Wife : Do you want dinner?
Husband : Sure, what are my choices?
Wife : Yes and no.

Anniyan vs Ganguly

2005-07-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Ambi: mr ganguly y r u shouting at the umpire, after u have been declared out ??? athu satapadi thapu
Ganguly:dey kudumi, naa yaar theriyuma bengal tiger appidithan kathuven.
Ambi:kenya,bangaldesh kooda century adikirale australia,pakistan na 1 bathroom poralae y?
Ganguly:naan dhadha da , thevayana apo matum than aaduven.
Ambi: mr ganguly captains like ponting, inzy, smith ellarum century
adichu team jeyika vaikara ,aana neengo aadave maatiringale?
Ganguly:dey kudumi,athan sachin, dravid, sehwag ellam century adikiraanungala apuram naan yethuku adikanum
Ambi: alatchiyama pesathingo Mr ganguly, aduthava talentla fame gain pandrathu thapu!!
Gnaguly:poda kudumi, yenake advice pandriya @#%@^#$%^@$%^$%^$%^
Anniyan:DEY BAADU..........
Ganguly:yaaruga neenga gillespi maathiri hair style vachurikinga???
Anniyan : naan avan ila da yema , yenda run adika ve maatingara,
Ganguly: batting form appo appo vanthutu pogum, cricketla ithellam sagajam thanaga.....
Anniyan : ippidi soli thapichidalaamnu paakiriya.....
Anniyan: 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly:onum thapu ilinga......
Anniyan: 5 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly:thapu maari thanga theriyuthu..........
Anniyan: 5 varushama 5 5 matcha 5 run edutha thapa?????????/
Ganguly: periya thapu thaanga...........
Anniyan: kamunati athathanda oruoru matchalayum nee panikitu iruka
Anniyan: unakellam ballbojanam thanda, nee than stumpakthar,sami,lee,mcgrath ellarum una vachuthan bowling practicepanaporaanga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Deepak(Movie Boss) for sending a wonderful conversation.

Morning Raaga made me drowsy

2005-07-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after going back to home, me and my girl friend watched "Morning Raaga". Initially I was not so excited about the movie, but after seeing Nasser and few other familiar faces in Tamil speaking in English, it was very funny. The movie doesnt have any story at all and it made me drowsy and sleepy at 7PM itself. Luckily it was only a 1 1/2 hrs film.

After that it was 3hrs of TBS watching Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends till 10. I always thought that only Joey and Chandler are funny and never even associated comedy with Ross. But after watching 2 hrs of friends yesterday, I somehow felt that even he is not that bad.

My fav cast in friends in descending order are
1) Joey
2) Chandler
3) Jennifer
4) Ross
5) Phebe and
6) Monica (Not at all funny)

In raymonds the order is

1) Frank
2) Robert
3) Raymond
4) Marie and
5) Debra

What are you favourites of the show??

Ioiio, congrats on 10,000 hits and wish you an additional zero in a quicktime! I must confess that your posts are good, replies to coments are swift and funny, and you do discuss on all the blogs, all the time. I am damn sure that you are bound to displace Kiruba and lazygeek very soon. Good Luck!

Click this link, and save a lot on books. Barnes and nobles are having a huge summer clearence, they have a lots of titles for 1.99, 3.99 and 7.99, check it out.

Batman Begins

2005-07-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

Probably a bit too late to write a review about the film since it has been more than 2 week since it has released. The film suprisingly doesnt go too much to show the prowess of Batman and tries not to deviate away from the story. It starts out with a scene in which a small kid falls down in the garden and gets frightened looking at the bats flying all over him. Then they go about telling about the bad guys of Gotham city and how the death of the small kid's father inspires him to be a Batman to inflict some kind of mystic fear on the bad guys of Gotham city.

Intrestingly Batman doesnt gets his powers all of a sudden like superman, instead they show it, learning it from a guy determined to get rid of all the evils in the world. As everybody knows by now,how Batman saves Gotham city from the bad guys forms the rest of the story. The gotham city set up is awesome and looks so real. The final train chase is an eye catcher. Katie holmes is cute. Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine excel in their roles as usual. Personally I was disappointed that Robin is not in the cast as I always used to like him in the cartoons. The car and their hide out place doesnt actually look similar to what we see in the cartoon atleast in terms of the effect.

There is a lot more about the movie, this is just a gist to whet your appetite. Movie is worth watching once if you like these comic characters.

Link to Behindwoods

2005-07-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

Deepak, shanawaz, mlilitary, sathya, fever, gautham, narendran and all others who have a blog please place a link to http://www.behindwoods.com . We need to get the google pagerank higher for our site, which also takes into account the number of incoming links. For all you ssn guys, its an order, matha ellarum neenga viruppa patta link kodukellam. ellarukkum 2 naal time kudukaren, athukulla ella bloglayum link eruckanum.

My hands are aching very badly because of bowling in the weekend. Weekend was usual fun, looking for houses to rent next month, bowling, movie(Batman Begins) and some grocery shopping.

Recently got a dvr recorder for free from comcast and they also offered me 10 hbo channels for free. With the DVR you can record all your favourite programs and wach it later and of course with 10 hbo channels you are bound to see lots of movies. I am even thinking that i should cancel the blockbuster subscription now with so many movies I could see in HBO itself.

If you guys have comcast, to get free hbo and dvr, just call their customer service and tell them that you are looking to change to dish and so want to terminate the service with them. Then they will offer you these free channels and hbo and they might even lower your bill. If they dont just hang up saying that you need to look up the calendar for dates to cancel and then cal again later.

2005-07-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to get up today morning knowing that it is a Friday. Work is going very slowly today but I am going alright for the release next week. Ever since I started working here, I feel very much at home. I was worried a bit before that I wont like a programming job and I dont know anything else as well. Now I have the confidence that I can easily finish my 1 1/2 yr tenure at Intel.

I wont exceed my minutes for sure this month as I am using my office phone extensively. I have exceeded my minutes fo the last 6 months and on an average paying around 20 - 30 $ extra. Going to be a weekend in home after a long time and not planning anything at all except for looking for new house to rent next month.

Most of you would have travelled a lot last weekend, so everybody have a peaceful weekend at home!

Funny Leave Letters

2005-07-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

A collection of leave letters and applications written by peoplein various places of India...

1. Infosys, Bangalore: An employee applied for leave as follows: Since I have to go to my village to sell my land along with my wife, please sanction me one-week leave.

2. This is from Oracle Bangalore: From an employee who was performing the "mundan" ceremony of his 10 year old son: "as I want to shave my son's head, please leave me for two days.."

3. Another gem from CDAC. Leave-letter from an employee who was performing his daughter's wedding: "as I am marrying my daughter, please grant a week's leave.."

4. From H.A.L. (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) Administration dept: "As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days leave."

5. Another employee applied for half day leave as follows: "Since I've to go to the cremation ground at 10 o-clock and I may not return, please grant me half day casual leave"

6. An incident of a leave letter "I am suffering from fever, please declare one day holiday."

7. A leave letter to the headmaster: "As I am studying in this school I am suffering from headache. I request you to leave me today"

8. Another leave letter written to the headmaster: "As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day."

9. Covering note: "I am enclosed herewith..."

10. Actual letter written for application of leave: "My wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home I may be granted leave".

11. Letter writing: - "I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well."

12. A candidate's job application: "This has reference to your advertisement calling for a ' Typist and an Accountant - Male or Female'... As I am both(!! )for the past several years and I can handle both with good experience, I am applying for the post.

London

2005-07-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

It is all happening in London in the past 2 days.

First of all winning the Olympic bid for 2012 over Paris and NY.
Terrorist attacks today on their transportation system.
The G8 summit and the rare sight of England winning over Australia very easily in cricket.

I am just worried about one mr.dinesh nagu in London. Did any of you chat with him after the bombing?

2005-07-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Cute Pic

Mission to LA and San Diego

2005-07-05T16:10:00.000-07:00

The Gang

From Left : Srikanth aka Sivaraj(Mainframe Specialist, Hcl, Chennai), Action King aka Arjun(Intern, Qualcomm, Campbell), Mark Waugh aka Dr. Vijay(Phd, SUNY Buffalo), Brad Pitt aka PK(You know about me!), Maddy aka Ghuru(Hardware Engineer,Sunnyvale) & Remo aka Anand( Software ENgineer, Yahoo, Sunnyvale)

Mission: Conquer LA & San Diego in 2 and half days and taunt each other and have a whale of a time.

Friday

6:00 : OOPS, we were supposed to start our journey to LA from Sunnyvale after assembling in Maddy's house but local boy REMO was distracted by girls in the way and was late by 45 minutes.

7:00 : Finally we get going and we had a smooth 45 minutes before we hit a very bad traffic and we went for only 5 miles in an hour. Still we had a great time as we were with so much zeal that everybody started to show their class(in blades) right from the begining. Srikanth was new to this group, so was happy listening to Kaka kaka song and caring a damn about our conversation.

11:00 : We stopped over at Taco Bell for dinner and we were further delayed as our car was blocked bya truck filling up the gas station. Drove for 2 hrs after that.

3:15 : After further breaks anda quick tour of caltech and pasadena, we reached our hotel at 3 and we quickly checked in to our hotels and hit the bed.

Saturday

10:00 : AFter our breakfast in McD we arrived in Universal Studios and this is were the actual fun starts. It took us 1 hour to enter the studio as we were all busy with taking pics withe universal studios globe outside and also getting our tickets. Then we started to go in the rides one after the other. I will write about each rides below

Van Helsing: It was supposed to be a horror channel through which you walk through but it was not at all scary except for romantic hero Srikanth who was scared to death.

Shrek 4D: It is the first of its kind and will amaze you the first time you see it. It has all the amazing effects which makes you feel as if you are right in to the story. A definite must see when you are here.

Back to the future : This ride makes you feel as if you are riding a spaceship and you go thru the skys, mountains, dinosaurs and volcanos. The ramming and slamming feels so real and I love this ride. A definite must see.

Studio Tour: They take everybody in a bus and show us around the studio about how the whole scenes we see in the films are captured in a small room in a studio, how withing a second, a scene can be changed from a sunny day to rainy day, and much more. The king kong effect we see in one of the song in Jeans is part of this ride. They showed us a setting from " War of the Worlds" film in which the whole house is destroyed due to a plane wreckage.

By the time our tour ended we were all feeling very hungry and sleepy as well. After standing in huge lines for food, we had our lunch and set out for the other rides.

Revenge of the Mummy: This is one of the newest rides in Universal Studios and definitely the ebst in there. I am not going to explain in detail as it wont be a big fun if you are there next time.
We had a 1 hr wait time to get into this ride but it is definitely worth the wait.

Jurassic Park Ride: This ride takes you thru tunnels with dinosaurs, sprinkles water on you here and there, and then takes u to a altitude and drops down vertically and comes to a halt in a splash. Very very enjoyable if you liketo get wet.

We were so excited by this time that we went to Jurassic Park and Mummy returns ride twice as there was not much of a wait time.

Terminator 2: I thought after seeing the shrek 4D that I wont like this 3d but to everybody's suprise it turned out to be good. It started out as a drab but picked up pace and is definitely fun to watch.

In between all this I won a shrek doll by playing one of those games they generally have in all theme parks.

By the times we finished all the rides and getting our souvenirs, it was around 11:30. Remo wanted to enjoy the night life of LA but everybody were too tired for it and we had to return to our hotel after having pizza at Domino's.

We had the satisfaction of going to all the rides in Universal studios and were very tired at the end of it. On top of that we had a plan to leave early on Sunday to san diego.

Sunday

9 - We left la to san diego around 9 and it is a 2 hrs drive. We went straight to sea world.

Sea World

Everybody were apprehensive about spening 56 dollars for sea world but we decided to go ahead and see it. To our suprise, it turned out to be a great place to have fun.

We went to a killer whale show initially and it was awesome to watch. Since we were little late for the show we had to see it from a distance and didnt have the chance to get wet. Then we went for a sea lions show which was also pretty good. I am not going to go in detail about these shows as you should go there and enjoy the moment to feel it. There was also a pet show featuring pigs, dogs,cats and birds which was quite incredible. Dolphin show was also quite good as we sat in the second row and we were soaked in wated by the dolphins. Quite a spectacle.

After watching these show, we went for a ride called shipwreck. It simulates white water rafting and is definitely worth going once. But before that you should know something, You will get wet very badly!

There was a 4d show called haunted lighthouse. Go and experience the latest in technology here, as far as i know this was the best 4d i have ever been.After going to another water ride, fireworks and dance shows we finally left sea world at 11 and reached la at 2 30.

Monday was a pretty relaxing day, we got up late, had lunch buffet in a indian restaurant and had a glmpse of kodak theatre,chinese theatre, hollywood walk of fame and the hollywood sign in Hollywood. We started our journey back to Sunnyvale around noon and we were back at 7.

Had dinner at Udupi and came back to sacramento at 11. Luckily today is a holiday for me otherwise I guess I would have been forced to take lave today. Since i have been to both these places I thought it wouldnt be great fun. But it exceeded my expctations very easily. It has been a long time since I had a road trip like this. But....the same routine has set in already. I will post more pictures here from our trip.

What did you do for the weekend?

Sprint sucks again!

2005-07-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

I was so dissatisfied with sprint services that I changed my service from Sprint to verizon last month. Now I got my last month bill from sprint and when I called them about my deposit, they told me that I have been already been credited with my deposit 11 months back! I went through all my bills and found that I never got credited.

When I checked back with the financial department of Sprint, he threatened me to pay m last bill as soon as possible, otherwise he said there seems to be an agency to care of guys like me. I am not ready to get into a tussle with them now, so i had to pay my last month bill and also lose my deposit. To fuel my agony, Verizon sent out a huge first month bill, which I learn now is due to 2 months fee + Exceeded minutes. I have exceeded 900 daytime minutes, thats a crime I would say.

Anyways never go for a sprint service.

I am going to LA and San Diego starting today and will have fun till Monday. Suprisingly Tuesday is a holiday for Intel.
Happy Long Weekend to All!

This is from a Forward I got:

Know some unknown history of words............................

MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'. POP
MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.
BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.
FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).
DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped.
NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S.
AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.
JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's business.
QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest.
TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.
JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle (GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.

Cheap Flights to Australia

2005-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am looking for cheap flight tickets for my girl friend from LA or SFO to sydney next month(Dep: Around July 17 Arriv: Around Jul 21). Do anybody know about good website or a travel agent for the trip. Any suggestions are most welcome.

I have checked out cheaptickets, expedia, travelocity, travelzoo, qantas, singapore and malaysian.

2005-06-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Played Tennis yesterday for 1 hour and realised how pathetic my fitness and stamina is. Looks like I have a long way to go in that regards. 24 years of vigorous eating and sleeping has led to bad proportions i guess! Need to gradually start working out everyday.

I was quite fascinated about what bloggers can achieve after reading some old articles about bloggers in Hindu and financial express. Kiruba through his blog reached out to many willing international governmental and non governmental donors, during the time TN was havoced by Tsunami. Also it helps out to send one's message strongly to the society.

Another fascinating thing is you get to know so many people through it. I have resolved myself to post more regularly and write something relevant as well. I feel so excited everytime i have a comment in my blog which makes me keep going for the day.

I would appreciate any comments about getting more people to your blog.

Sathya - Thanks for linking back. I thought u were doing an internship somewhere, but from your comments looks like you are in school still. When are you graduating?

Deepak - canoeingna ennanda deepak. Munna pinna naan athellam pannathu ellai. I think my body is not upto it yet,anyways :-. But i do go for walking near that folsom dam,it is very beautiful.

Military - Did you have any lck with the google search? If yes which suggestion was helpful?

I always wonder about a person from Miami, Florida who is a regular vistor to my blog. I dont know anybody there, can i know who it is??

Fun during Weekend

2005-06-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to a weekend but it ends as soon as it starts and the same monotonous life continues thru the weekdays. I generallly dont even think about work related things and just want to have fun. But, some sort of routine has set into my weekend plans as well. I have run out of ideas abt the different things I can do over the weekend.

Anyways what i do most is,
1) Watch a movie in theatre on Friday
2) Pick 2 movies from blockbuster
3) Clean the house ( Not so fun)
4) Go for bowling( Probably once every 6 weeks)
5) Catch up with my friends(Phone)
6) Since I am in Sacramento, I am invariably in Sunnyvale once every 2 or 3 weeks

Thats abt it. What do you guys do over the weekend to have fun??

Anniyan

2005-06-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Almost all the blogs I read says that Anniyan Sucks! I did enjoy the movie except for a few scenes when REMO tries to win over Sadha. Other than that it was entertaining for me. Tamil movies can be never compared with english movies with 5 songs, sentimental and stunt scenes. What else do you need in a film?

2005-06-25T09:32:00.000-07:00

Had dinner at Buca di Beppo and watched "BeWitched" yesterday. Not a film worth watching. Last week was my first whole working week after a very long time, made some very good progress at work. There were times in the past 8 days at work when I felt why the hell I want to be an programmer, looking at codes that were developed by others but afterall it is fun. Only at times when you are stuck with something very badly, you feel like quitting. With a high paying job at Intel I shouldnt grudge more about it.

Australians are back with venegance, beating England easily and ruthlessly beating Bangladesh. There was a talk that age was catching up with the australian but it is nothing but rustiness from off season i guess. Wonder what Indians will come up after a off season like this.

Sexy Idea or Gross??

2005-06-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

AD (Click the pic for bigger view)

Got this picture as a forward yesterday. The ad is for an lubricating gel (K-Y equivalent) targeting the French market by a Brazilian ad agency. The first time you look at it seems to be an innocous one, but get it into the details!! Seems that it has created some jitters in Europe. Hope nobody gets offensive because of this post.

Everything New about Life

2005-06-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since I started working in Intel I have been very busy and couldnt believe I have already worked for a week. I had a deadline today and I was very sure yesterday morning that I wont finidh it but to my suprise I have done it and I even have time to write my blog now.

Learned a lot of new tricks in .Net and actually starting my stint here. There are around 4 or 5 guys here in Intel whom I can hang out during the breaks. Beginning to get the hang of the corporate environment. But lots there to learn..

I watched Anniyan twice last weekend and generally had a nice time in sunnyvale.
Really happy to see Australia thrashed by England, Bangladesh and Somerset 4 times in a row. It has been a long time since they lost games like that. They remind a lot about how India plays and most of their players look out of form and rusty. On the other hand England is firing in all cylindars and full of confidence. Ashes might afterall turn out to be an entertaining one.

I should actually thank Shanawaz and Military for driving a lot of people to my blog through theirs. Did i miss anbody's link in my blog??

Unique Experience

2005-06-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

After 2 weeks in the wilderness, started working from last wednesday in Intel. First project is pretty cool and looks like i can manage it very well.

Today I went to saw Anniyan in San Jose. Not only that I was 30 minutes late for the movie but me and ghuru were standing and watching the whole movie due to lack of seats. It was very funny as I have never watched a movie standing! Still my legs ae planning.

Please nobody even attempt to see Boogeyman, it was an utter waste movie.
Everybdy have a great weekend.

Shan I will try and call you soon.

Usefully wasting your time!

2005-06-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Recently I found this tooolbar called stumbleupon, after you install this you see a toolbar just like a google or yahoo toolbar. Then you choose your favourite topics from a huge array of list and then you are ready to wate your time usefully. With every click , you get a ramdom webpage according to the topics you choosed. It is sort of addictive and this was something I was looking for.

Link

Well, actually excited about starting my work for Intel on Wednesday. Nothing other than that.

Movies Watched in the past few days: Mr and Mrs Smith, Spanglish

Cinderella Man

2005-06-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

Watched Cinderella Man on the first day it got released here. The movie is about the legendary boxer Jim Braddock and his struggle to championship. In his early days, he was winning all his fights and nothing could stop him from the championship. Suddenly The Great Depression period sets in and he like many other americans loses his house, stocks, fame and all his money. It also coincides with his losing grip on boxing. The rest of the film shows his courage, will and determination to be back to the ring and evantually win a championship bout with fearsome boxer Max Baer.

It is directed by Ron Howard, one who also directed " Beatiful Mind". This is a real story and Russel Crowe excels as Jim Braddock in this film. Renee Zellweger's of Bridget Jones Dairy fame acts in a more serious role and looks convincing. Paul Giamatti as Jim Braddocks manager is very hilarious. The timeline of 1928 - 1935 has been beatifully depicted in the movie. I never knew that there was a period of great depression in USA until I saw this movie. Eventhough it turns out to be another boxing based movie, it stands out in screenplay and editing. Surely worth watching once.

Movie watched Yesterday: Seven(Boring)

2005-06-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

Wynn Falls

2005-06-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

Paris Tower

2005-06-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

Inside Venitian

2005-06-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Luxor

2005-06-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Fountain Show in Mirage

2005-06-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

View of Mirage from Paris Tower

2005-06-04T11:22:00.000-07:00

With Bharath in Las Vegas

Show Time...

2005-06-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Call me crazy or a movie maniac. Watched 2 movies, Cellular and Usual Suspects on the trot yesterday. Cellular was ok,but 6 months back I started watching Usual Suspects and after seeing the start, I couldn't understand anything and we decided to switch to some other movie. But I can tell you, the movie is worth watching. The suspense drags on till the very end and worths the wait.

I have decided to take the MCSD exams to do something useful other than watching movies.

PK

Movies watched Yesterday: Cellular, Usual Suspects

No Title

2005-06-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

All these days were pretty relaxing, not a lot of work to do and having a good time of it. I am watching a movie everyday and the list of movies I have seen in the past few days include Philadelphia, Run away Jury, Unfaithful, Perfect Strangers, Lucky and these are the ones I can rememeber. I have taken the monthly pass from Blockbuster which allows you to take 2 movies and return them and take another two movies , how many times you want in a month. Since I have a new DVD player as well, so its all about movies this week.

Have started doing some walking in the evening, as my weight is going up exponentially over the past few months and I am forced to do this now. I am really excited about my parents moving into their own new apartment in T Nagar in a few days. Wish I could also have been there at the Grahapravasam on June 8th.

Still no news about when I am going to start working for Intel and it looks like it is most probably some time end of next week.

Will keep em posted.

PK

Editor Mohan - The chosen one

2005-05-27T10:08:00.000-07:00

Editor Mohan has been in the film industry close to 50 years. The man is amazing- he has edited more than 500 films in all languages and has produced over a dozen films, which were all super hits in Telugu and Tamil. Today he is better known as the father of ‘Jayam’ Ravi the fastest rising young star in Kollywood.
Now the grapevine has it that Editor Mohan is the “chosen one” to produce the next Rajnikanth film. Mohan says that one day out of the blue, the superstar called him up and said: “You are going to produce my next film”!

These words from Rajnikanth have turned Editor Mohan’s life upside down as every soul in the film industry has become envious of him. A campaign was unleashed by the jealous film fraternity against Mohan and his family particularly his son Jayam Ravi.

The local press wrote that Mohan is going to remake the Amitabh Bachchan-Akshay Kumar starrer Waqt from Hindi with Rajnikanth and Jayam Ravi! They also reported that the shooting would start in June and the film will release for Diwali!

When Sify.comcontacted Edtor Mohan, he categorically denied all these rumours. Mohan swears that he will never remake Waqt and it was figment of somebody’s imagination. Says Mohan: “What they fail to realize is that Waqt itself was a remake of a Sivaji sir film in Tamil”.

Mohan however makes it clear: “”Yes Rajni sir has spoken to me about his next film. I have told him a storyline, which will suit his image. He has promised to get back after taking some rest”. He also added that nothing else has been firmed up and it is very early to comment on other details.

Sourece: Sify

Speeding Ticket

2005-05-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well I came back to Los angles on Monday but on the way I got a speeding ticket as well. I was crusing on 82 on a 70 max highway for atleast 10-15 miles when suddenly a cop came behind me and stopped me. I was awestruck when he told me that I was going at 90 and I get a ticket for that. It was not that i never went at 90, just that I didnt go at 90 today. Anyways I was happy to get a ticket since my driving has been all about speed now a days and only a ticket can slow me down a little bit.

On doing a online research i found that there are number of ways to get away with a ticket. One way is goto the court and defend strongly against the citation, write to the court saying u have a clean record, and some crappy reasons like u were hurrying to the next exit for nature's call and stuff. I feel giving the fine for the ticket might be the easiest way out. Also I have been harboring the idea of buying a radar detector for a long time, since now i got a ticket I am goign to be a bit serious abt shopping around for a radar detector. Any suggestions are most welcome.

I am finishing off my work in caltech tommorow and i am leaving to Sacramento either tommorow or the day after. My joining date at Intel will be on Thursday I believe and I am yet to seriously start preparing for .Net. Anyways I am looking forward to know what it is to work for Intel.

Well last but not the least I have got my new phone Motorola V265 and its simply awesome. The service is better and the features this phone has amazes me. For all its features, it is so weightless and small. I just love this phone and would highly recommend it if you are looking for 1.
My new number is 916 261 2044.

I got a chance to see Kana Kandein in Sunnyvale last weekend, I would say it is a watchable movie. Even though it drags on for a while in the end , there was never a moment when you feel like bored or feel agitated by stupid logic. The whole film revolves around the villain , who has done a meaty performance than Srikanth. Gopika has overdone glamour a bit which doesnt suit her 1 bit. Screenplay has been handled well and the drawback you can say is the length of the film,song picturisation and gopika's glamour.

I am busy with packing my stuff at home. Usually people in my apartment sign a 6 month lease but fortunately my manager forgot to get the lease signed from me and so I am all free and will get back my deposit as well. Looks like the tide is in my way and hopefully I should do well.

I would welcome any comments from you to know more about my audience:-

Will post more frequently from hereon after I settle down in Sacramento.

PK

In Sacramento

2005-05-20T15:31:00.000-07:00

Have been travelling a lot in the past 7 days. I came to sacramento day before yesterday. Nobody will believe when I say that I have put on 8000 miles in my car in the past 2 months and I am supposed to use only 12000 per year according to my lease agreement.

It has been really quite 2 or 3 days, just watching tv. I have really started watching a lot of serials after coming to california. I love to see everybody loves raymond,king of queens and friends everyday. The list doesnt end with the three, I also watch Seinfeld, the 70s show,home improvement and yes dear.

I got a great computer desk for just 7$ from here. I couldnt beleive until i got it. It was not available online but instores and they are giving it away for such a price because the magnetic roller for the keyboard seems to give some trouble when it ages. Whats the big deal if you can get it for 7$!

Have to go back to Pasadena on Sunday, find a guy as a replacement for my apt, turn off all services, and come back to sacramento next week.

Hopefully should start working for intel soon.

ok Thats it for now!

Rajinikanth in Waqt remake

2005-05-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

Rajinikanth who returned from his Rishikesh trip has accepted Editor Mohan's offer to remake Waqt. The film has Amitabh- Akshay Kumar in the lead. Rajini will play Amitabh's role and Jeyam Ravi will play the Akshay role. The film will be directed by Raja.

Apart from this talks are on to remake Chandramukhi in Hindi. The film is likely to be directed by Vasu itself and efforts are on to rope in Amitabh for the Rajni role.

Rajni who is very happy with Vasu has promised him one more film. The producers in line are Poornachandra Rao, and Panchu Arunachalam. Lets wait and see

Source: Indiaglitz

Intel - Way to go!

2005-05-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

I am very sorry that I couldnt post a lot in the past few days. I am going through a lot of changes in life that blogging was no one of my best priorities all these days.

Good things first, I have got thru the interview that I had with Intel for a .Net consultant position and will most probably start working from First or Second week of June. I will be relieving from my present work from Caltech on May 27th or sooner. I am really looking forward to the change as I am really bored of the lonely life in LA.

I went to Las vegas for the weekend and had a good time there. I have taken a lot of pictures there and will try to post them here whenever possible. I have also changed my phone service to verizon as sprint just couldnt get my bills right and I hate the invisible charges they add on to the bills. After doing a quick research i got the Motorola v265 from amazon.

Heard that Kana Kandein film is watchable, so have to download and watch it sometime. So nothing much other than this. Hopefully should post more this week.

PK

Picture

2005-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Cricket News

2005-05-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Haynes on shortlist for Team India coach
Coach interviews on May 19
Waugh submits Cricket City master plan to Buddhadev
Ranatunga returns to Sri Lanka cricket after five-year exile
Pakistan cricket team arrives in Caribbean
World XI squad by next month: Gavaskar

Change of Job?

2005-05-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

One should really love his job and wife to get rid of most of his problems in life. Beacuase these are the two things, you will spend most of your time with. I am really not happy with my current job as it is not to my "Liking". There is no hurry to complete any project, nobody who is spyig me to see if i am coming in time or wprking 8 hrs and it is a great company to work for namewise. Eventhough I have all these cushions, it lacks the basic substance "Interest in my working field". I really really want to put in the effort in my early days as an employee into whatever I am pursuing and I want to make sure I am in the right field. Since this is not waht I wanted I want to move on and look for another job.

I have had a phone interview with Intel for a possible .Net consultant position with them. Since I was only exposed to .Net technology for the past 4 or 5 days, I had to really had to go out of my way to answer some of the questions in ASP.Net and Sql server 2k. I got lucky that some of my answers were correct by fluke. I would say the chances of answering those right was one in a million. I had really depend on google for lot of answers and overall the interview went on very well.

Now comes the tuff part, waiting for the results and for a smooth transition. Hope everything goes on very well. Will keep posted

PK

Busy Busy days

2005-05-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have been extremely busy last few days and lot has been happening in my life as well. I dont have time to write about it now but will list in points and will elaborate in my next post.

How sprint sucks!
Trip to Sacramento
Two movies I saw which everybody should avoid
Meeting my secret friend after 3 years
New home in India
How my present job sucks and
My new found interest in .Net

Will write it soon!

Google Cheatsheet

2005-05-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

Link

A Lot Like Love

2005-04-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a dull weekend this time around. This is the first weekend since I have joined work that I am not with my girl friend Sumathi. Feels very different and surely miss her a lot. Well I am not meeting her since her parents have flown here to take her away from me once for all. They want her either to come and have at a bridegroom in California or go back to India once for all. Probably lot of information for a blog but i couldnt avoide from writing about my frustration. Anyways the title is not intended to mean about my live story but it is about the movie "A Lot Like Love" which I saw yesterday.

It is yet another movie in which I expected the 70's man Ashton Kutcher to provide some comedy but another disappointing movie in the end. Nothing great in the story, no real conviction to take the movie, and no comedy whatsoever. So watch out! Its a strictly Dont Watch movie!

PK

Test your Java code on-line!

2005-04-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I found in a blog that mentioned about java codes being tested online. The site is Zamples .But what is very nice is that you have possibility to choose the JDK. So, you can decide to run your code by using JDK 5.0, but also by usng JDK 6.0 . Not only that you can run perl,python,C#,Ruby, VB.net. So all those geeks reading this, give it a try.

Try your codes today.

PK

RSS feed and Google

2005-04-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

If you have noticed, there is a "Sign in" link on the top right corner of google now. You can sign in with your gmail account and it just shows the search queries you entered and the links you looked at from the results. Very useful tool indeed if you are a frequent googler like me! Google API is another interesting venture u can try if you are ino programming and it looks like google are taking over mapquest with their new Google Maps. I am amazed at how creative google can be right from Orkut, Maps,videos and what not. A job in Google Labs now, might be a very creative one and dream job as well.

RSS feeds- Most of the sites have RSS or XML feeds now. You clicked that and u ended up with some page with lots of xml codes? Well most of you should have known that you need a feedreader to read those pages.
There are many feedreaders but the one I use is from here. Downlaod and install the software and then click on Add Feed in it and give the links for RSS feeds from some of your favourite sites.
Eg: The RSS feed for my blog is www.pkarthik.blogspot.com/atom.xml. After you are done adding the feed, now you get the latest updates as soon as i publish it in my blog. This way you dont need to actually goto the site but still not miss any of the news. i use it to read news from sify,rediff, look for deals in edealinfo,slickdeals and much more.Hope this helps somebody!

Well, its too late to talk abt last weekend, but never got time to update abt it. I had a nice time in Sunnyvale, met my friend from Buffalo(Anand) and went to saw Chandramukhi. The film was entertaining but not as good as padayappa or Baasha. Also I went to mystery spot and the experience was cool. Look at the website abt what is the mystery!

PK

Wanna lose weight?

2005-04-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

This fat guy sees an ad for a new gym
guaranteeing to reduce anyone's weight by 5, 10 or 20 kilograms on the
first day. So he goes and tells them he wants to lose 5 kg. They lead him
into a huge gym with all kinds of ropes and parallel bars and ladders and
tell him to wait a minute.
He's standing there when on the far side of the gym a door opens and out
steps a beautiful girl, with a sign saying
"If you catch me, I'm yours."
He starts running, and just as he gets close, she starts picking up speed.
Before! he knows it, he's running all over the gym, up the ladders, down
the ladders, across the parallel bars, here and there. And just as he's
about to catch the blonde, pop, she disappears through a door. In comes the
management who lead him to the showers, and then weigh him. Sure enough, he
lost exactly 5 kg.
He's back on the street and starts to think.
"Jesus, I was so close to catching her. If I had a little more time..."
So he races back to the gym and says, "I want to lose 20 more kg."
"No problem," says the manager.
Again he is led to the large gym. This time he's standing by the door when
it opens. Out comes a Gorilla with a sign.
"If I catch you, you're mine."

Google API

2005-04-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.genericgeek.com/index.php?q=node/456

Interesting media and blog links on Chandramukhi

2005-04-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

There is too much of talk about Chandramukhi everywhere. Everybody are ecstatic about watching it in theatres on the first day. There were encouraging reviews abt the film, some not so encouraging and some are going to the extent of comparing this film with Baba itself! I have got a collection of links abt the first day reactions.

Happy Reading!

Japanese reach Chennai to watch ‘Chandramukhi’
Link

Chandramukhi is a certain hit!
Link

'Chandramukhi' makes fans euphoric
Link

Chandramukhi : Totally Unexpected!
Link - Has some links for watching rajini's intro and bits of devuda devuda song.

Superstar Pattam
Link

Chandramukhi in TamilNadu
Link

Chandramukhi - First day, First show and a superstar
Link

Chandramukhi - 2 Thumbs Down, No Punch
Link

Chandramukhi - Been there! Seen it!
Link

After reading all these I am caught in the euphoria to see this movie in a theatre rather than downloading it from forums and watching it.

PK

Mumbai Express Review

2005-04-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

Mumbai Express

Movie: Mumbai Express
Directon: Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao
Cast: Kamal Hassan, Manisha Koirala, Nazzar, Pasupathi, etc ...
Music: Illayaraja
Lyrics: Vaali

It is a much talked about movie of the season. Mumbai Express, which was released today, follows in the wake of the success of Vasoolraja. Kamal has the knack of cracking a good story and his ability to sustain a full-length comedy on his shoulders is a testimony to his cinematic acumen. In Mumbai Express, therefore, he has handled the story and screenplay in an attempt to provide a thriller cloaked in comedy.

Pasupathi, Vaiyapuri and Ramesh Aravind plot to kidnap the son of the building contractor,(Santhanabarathi) who is greedy to grab the poor slum-dwellers’ land. As the fourth person in the gang meets with an accident, they rope in Kamal, who is a master rider. On the D-day, they kidnap the boy, only he is not the son of Santhanabarathi but of ACP Nasser. The twist in the story starts from here. Kamal calls up Santhanabarathi and seeks a ransom of one crore rupees. The worried father pays up only to find out that his son is safe. He informs the police of the kidnapping episode who start the investigation. Meanwhile, Nasser who is the father of the hostage starts a clandestine attempt to trace the boy born out of an illicit relationship with Manisha Koirala. With the police hot on their heels, the panicky kidnappers plan to kill the boy. Kamal who keeps the money has a change of heart and saves the boy and rescues his mother from the clutches of Nasser.

The treatment of the story is so convoluted that the viewer is left with several loose ends. The impact of comedy is evident only in the body language of the actors although the situations are far from comical. Kamal’s range of acting is panoramic and he has done a good job as the deaf man with the golden heart. Another revelation is Pasupathi who has broken out of the Virumandi mould to do comedy. His method acting is very natural. A talented actress like Manisha has absolutely no substance to her role and she just dream walks in the film. Nasser has nothing much to do.

Overall the talented actors have not been utilized fully in the screenplay and the experienced director (Singeetham Srinivasa Rao) has failed to plug the loopholes.
The background score by maestro Ilayaraaja is passable.

Cinematography is excellent especially the action scenes and on the super fast highways outside Mumbai.
The film is neither here nor there and could have been done with more finesse.

Source : Behindwoods