Please be to having lots of little balls soaked in syrup at home for the midnight snacks.
Uneventful day. Went to the Jains'. Was fun. Nothing notable to report. Don't you love how I blog even when I have nothing to blog about?
Bedtime!
Desi television serials are obsessed with marriage. It's true. Name one. Any one. You'll see. They're all obsessed with marriage.
My flu won't go away.
Dad made lots of samosas this morning. Only one was fit to be presented to Mum. Which is good, because after eating that one she didn't want anymore. God help us, he's been cooking fish all day.
To the Jains' we go for wot I suspect is a lot of card playing. Which is always fun.
And for you Black Cobra, I give you relics from the past -
"Bhabhiji, yeh kaise wahiyaad patte baatein hain!"
"Sarvesh, yeh rodhana ban karo."
That's an approximation. But close.
Went to Kwality restaurant today with the Jains, the Maliks and the Katarias to celebrate Mum's official retirement. Lord knows she's not going to sit still but at least she doesn't have to go driving to Ras Al Khaimah everyday.
So we estimated that Mum's delivered about 50,500 babies since her career began. Now that's got to be some sort of record.
It was fun with Rajan and Deven and Deep. I should hang out with people more often. Mum got lovely flowers which I've put in her bedroom that are smelling up the air quite nicely.
Don't forget tomorrow's her birthday, Black Cobra.
Ode to U.S. Military
Client: Anheuser-Busch
Brand: Anheuser-Busch
Title: "Applause"
Agency: DDB, Chicago
DDB Chicago's 'Applause' for Anheuser-Busch's Super Bowl ad lineup generated controversy in the advertising community but was a solid hit with viewers. They rated it the most-liked spot for the period. The ad showed an airport crowd spontaneously applauding a group of soldiers in desert fatigues passing through the concourse.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. plans to cut its health-care costs by forcing its employees to quit smoking -- and intends to use the savings from this and other cost-cutting programs to boost its advertising spending.Read more...
Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts is instituting the anti-smoking policy over the course of the next year, meaning existing employees will have to quit smoking or lose their jobs. The company is offering smoking cessation programs to the roughly one-third of Scotts employees who now smoke, Chairman-CEO Jim Hagedorn said.
.. never microwave sweet neembu ka achaar and eat it like subzi. It tastes horrid.
And all the seeds sunk to the bottom. It's very poignant. I wish I could take a picture to show you but that involves too much work.
So I stole one off the internet. Isn't this fun.
Went to bed at 2:30 am.
So like we did wake at the crack of bleedin' dawn at 5 am and pushed off for Ras Al Khaimah. Which isn't really THAT far if you take the Emirates Road. Dropped Mum off and on the way back home stopped at the office (dusty as ever), one of the sites (G+1 villa in Barsha), Kataria's house (where we lost a game of pool quite graciously whilst debating which car should be bought - the Phantom or the Maybach) (they're going with the black Rolls natch) and onwards to see the Jains who were not in.
Came home, cracked open the Blue Ocean Strategy to make notes on the paper and promptly fell asleep. Slept from 4 to 7 and was woken up by Art who sounded horribly tired. A, shall ring you tomorrow for the big scoop on life.
I think I want to go back to bed now. Damn but it's good to be home.
Saw a very nice biography on Celine Dion. I miss Vegas. I have Vegas withdrawal. It's December. We're s'posed to be in Vegas.
I think the matter of dispute with the cars was that the Raybach has an automatic footrest and the Rolls doesn't. It has a footrest but it's not button-poppable. Shalin was worried about that. He didn't want to overextend his 14-yr old little finger by negotiating with a non-automatic footrest. I completely empathize. Now the problem is that the Phantom is 6.3m long and the garage is only 6. Can't keep the Phantom out in the sun. Wot's a man to do?
And now, for the quote of the day, from self to Em, "you're my veerappan.. she said in a burst of unprecedented corny affection". Ok, so it wasn't exactly a quote. He'd leap out the nearest winda if I actually said that.
but it's good to be home. Was woken up by a cuppa cha and a multi-tiered turkey breast and omelet sammich which was very well received given that dinner had not been had. After pottering around with the classifieds for a bit, I promptly went back to bed. Woke at 2 pm. Ate some more. Went for a drive around town with Pops. Met the Jains and a very effeminate Rajan (poor him). Then the fun part of the evening began. We went to my favorite place - the fruit and vegetable market.
Scoff if you will, but if you've never been on the Oman road to the F&VM on a cool December night, you haven't lived. That place has a language of its own. A head of cauliflower is called a dana. Betcha didn't know that. I was followed by a one-eyed Pathani with a wheelbarrow for quite some time. It was wierd. Anyway, we bought loads of stuff as always and spent about an hour or so cleaning and putting it away.
My father has gone bonkers. He made a salad with the following ingredients:
One boiled egg
Leftover omelet from this morning
Tomatoes (from Holland)
Cheddar cheese (Kraft, cubed)
Moolis (lots of them)
Chinese cabbage (or is it lettuce?)
Iceberg lettuce (only a leaf or two)
Green chilies
Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
Salt
Chaat masala
Lal mirchi powder
and ate it all. He actually ate it all! Mother gagged in the kitchen and muttered under her breath.
Have convinced Pops to use his new Ericsson and to donate his old Nokia to Mother since she dropped her Samsung in pregnant woman fluids so I could get MY old Nokia back so I now have a cellphone in Dubai. Don't ask about the pregnant woman fluids. You don't want to know. Makes me want to retch just thinking about it.
Speaking of Mother, it's her last night duty tomorrow. Yeppers, me Mum's retiring. So Pops and I shall wake up at the crack of bleedin' dawn to drive her to Ras Al Khaimah to drop her off. Pops booked a limo to go pick her up after her last day at work on the day after. I have been commissioned to charge up the camcorder. I wonder if there'll be champagne. Did I mention that there are all sorts of lights on the tunnels? I shall try and take a picture next time.
And on that note, I shall steal another orange from the fruit basket and toodle off to bed with an improving book.
I miss you, Em.
I'm home now. There was a poodle on the Zurich flight. Don't ask.
5:43 am - CST
11:45 am Zurich time
I got selected for SPSS again. And we all know what that means. A good feel-up by a hefty woman in uniform. Here's a tip luvvies - don't fly one way, don't buy your ticket at the time of departure and don't pay with cash. Unless of course you want to be felt up by a hefty in uniform.
Boston to NY is a short flight. The chick who checked me in was an imbecile. She couldn't subtract $166.20 from $180.20. That's all I have to say on the subject.
First class check-in is so much nicer than the others. Here's another tip dahlings - when you have no bags to check-in, don't bother standing in coach lines. Mozee on over to the first class counter and brandish your ticket. Those people will be so glad to see someone that is not traveling with 7 overweight bags who won't pay excess that they'll even smile and be polite to you.
Lots of Jewish people on the flight. Wonder why. They're all going to Tel Aviv, that's why!
You know what's the best part about flying? Not the little cheddar snack packets they give you. Not the ineffectual little pillow either. It's the feeling of utter buoyancy you.. er.. feel.. when the plane takes off. When you know that split second when the wheels are no longer on the tarmac. Sometimes, I like to play a little game with myself and try and guess the exact moment when the wheels should fold back in. It's fun. You should try it.
I sneezed when I sat down and the whiny Yiddish nut job sitting next to me started rolling his eyes and complaining about how he's going to get my germs. After I glared at him and blew my nose noisily, he shut up and went back to muttering to himself and pulling his left ear. His friend asked me to switch seats. I gladly agreed and went to sit with a nice chap who was en route to Nuremburg. When I told him that I had never been there, he seemed surprised. Should I have been there? Is everybody going to Nuremburg? Did I miss out on this new Nuremburg fad?
Zurich airport is nice. Very high ceilings. Wide open spaces and all. Very.. Ikea.. even. They have fully portable passport check stands on wheels in a cordoned-off area in the middle. It's a little confusing as to who's s'posed to go through that as there are no signs. So I stood in it anyway, just for kicks, even though my flight isn't for another 2 hours. So when it was my turn, the chap asked me why I wanted to go to Tel Aviv. I told him because the weather there this time of year was supposed to nice and I hear good things about their baked goods. He was not amused. He was also not amused by the fact that my boarding pass is for Dubai and not Tel Aviv.
There's a lady sitting next to me who's crying because her Dad is dying.
I had ganne ka ras yesterday with ginger juice and lime and wotnot. Very exciting.
Can I just say this - Nyquil rocks. Bless the man who invented Vicks.
So like, I've seen The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark and now I'm watching Return of the Pink Panther. Can you see a trend here?
Damn, have to go do laundry. So don't have the energy.
I want cotton candy. The blue kind.
Did I mention that the woman singing is wearing a nightshirt?!
All I did was change the channel. Honestly.
There are these strange Chinese people singing Italian opera with dancing disembodied leather gloves dancing about with swords and a little kid with a nightingale trapped in a cellphone and fat prophets in Chinese lanterns flying about the place being dusted by feather dusters held by nobody and it is all so bloody bizzare. And there are subtitles. Apparently some emperor wants to hear the nightingale sing. Who sounds frighteningly like Brightman if you ask me. "The moon and stars fill my eyes". Now there are floroscent ducks with little clapping hands inside them. A very non-Chinese woman has appeared and is singing to a bunch of helmets. Now there's some sort of lazer show with urns. Oh God, I'm losing my mind. What the hell IS this?!
Never watch PBS when you're sick.
I need Vicks.
Finals are over! They were horrid. I have horrid grades. Marketing is still holding out - should be in before I leave. Yep, I'm leaving. On vacation. To Dubai. For three weeks. Hah. Eat yer heart out.
Been having horrid issues with housing and roommates. Take my advice - don't live with undergrads. They're stupid and irresponsible. Well, not my current undergrad housemate. She's nice. And from Hawaii.
Why is there nothing on tele at 7 am?! Oh no, Rachel Ray. Everytime I see Rachel Ray I think of Scott. He was obsessed with her. It was frightening.
I'm going to download the Tide song.
So like, I didn't tell you about the room. In addition to the futon, the desk, the chair and the mattress I now have a bed frame with box springs, another desk and another chair. From the stupid irresponsible undergrad housemate who absconded without paying the rent. And I finally hooked up the tele. Very fun. Now I can lie in bed and groan at the tube. Oo, there's a warm front coming in.
Flying on Saturday. Punjabi munda is supposed to be in NYC. Hope he'll come visit, the skunk. Em left yesterday for Seattle. I'm supposed to go out with the Middle Eastern boys today (Morocco, Egypt and Lebanon representin'!) but I'm too green mucusy. I shall potter around the house and watch pre-Christmas commercials.
The Gnu is also s'posed to be in NYC. Maybe I should go to NYC. No. It's too cold.
Apparently there are new airport security regulations. No cattle prods, ice picks, meat cleavers, pool cues but cigar cutters, eyelash curlers and short scissors are permitted. Ten bucks says I get pulled out for a random check. And underwired bras don't help, let me tell you. The number of people who ogle you when you're been boob-felt by a woman in uniform is fascinating.
Everybody is very upset that Damon has defected to the Yankees. Personally, I don't see the point. People are dying homeless in the streets. Perspective, people.
I have 567 emails in my Yahoo! inbox. They're not spam. Oh blech. Alrighty, let's get this over with.
The Pampers team won from Cohort C. Shelf-stable orange juice from B and Old Spice from D. Went to see the "Best of the best" presentations with the main aim of slashing the other Kimberly-Clark team's plan to shreds (we had toilet paper) but there wasn't any time for audience questions. That was not nice. For a management school, this one's remarkably badly managed.
So anyway. Pampers swept the board with bio-degradable brown toilet paper (I wonder who would buy brown tp) and I toddled off home to study for finals. So close. The term is almost over.
Blue Steel didn't win. We didn't win so bad, we came in 18th. There are only 30 teams. This made me sad.
So sad in fact that after the final presentations, I crawled into bed at 11:30 am and stayed there until class the next day at 8 am. I was a grouch and I didn't go drinking with everyone at BU Pub. I didn't even go see Haydn at the Symphony.
Another two vital lessons learned. As a leader you don't always have to get the consensus of the team to make a decision. And don't compromise on relationships with people for the sake of the game.
Sigh. I did want to win though.
For those of you that know me, know that I abhor wearing socks to bed. So then why am I wearing socks to bed? Let me tell you.
I have a cold :(
An achy sniffly tonsil-swelling head-woozing green mucus cold. So I'm going to stay in bed all day. And since I have all this time, I'm going to update the blog. I refuse to be a statistic. So read backwards luvvies. Here I go.
Damn, they even changed bits of Blogger's interface. Has it been THAT long?!
So like Marketing Simulation - Day One was intense. We met at 7:45, scarfed down donuts and got down to work. Team with highest cumulative net income wins. Product is cold medicine. Team Blue Steel (don't ask) started out being 25th out of 30 at the end of the first year. 16th at the end of the second and 8th in the end of the third. Morale is high. Competition is intense. 4th period saw us tied for 8th place again. Need to do something about this. Must win. Simply must.
Saturday was spent sleeping till 1:45 pm (the first time I've slept later than 7 am since I got to Boston). Had a strategy session with the rest of the team to figure out how to sell more cold medicine. Made dinner and popped off to bed.
Currently reading Nazi Hunter - The Wiesenthal File by Alan Levy - highly recommended. This book reads like a thriller. Provides key insights and information about the holocaust and the analysis done by Wiesenthal is mind-blowing.
Was woken up VERY nicely this morning. Have had images of samosas in my head all day. Made parathas and aloo for breakfast with black tea at 9 am, yelled at the Punjabi munda and promptly went back to bed. Woke at 4 pm. Have wasted entire day being slothful. Man it feels good. Now if I only had a television, life would be close to perfect.
Missed seeing the Blue Man Group today. Was thinking of going to Target with the Postal woman just to get out of the house (and, presumably, bed) but too lazy now. Yet still desperately need entertainment. I shall go for a late night movie!
Looking forward to Thanksgiving in EnYCee with the Goog monster and her to-be-hubby. Fun and games, luvvies, fun and games. We're going to be Japanese porn chicks with blue-black hair (with bangs, natch), checked skirts and black fish nets. Oh the fun we'll have walking arm in arm with our Bolshevic hats speaking in tongues. I'm practically giddy with glee.
Should finish brand and positioning paper for tomorrow and investigate all the big-screen options this blechy town has to offer. Pray for me. Pray the Gods of Marketing rain down manna from the Heavens and Blue Steel wins in the top three. Lord knows I could do with at least one A in my first term.
Day 1 -
We met, we normed and now we're ready to storm. Donuts and orange juice. Now we discuss the case. See you in a bit.
Success will be mine!
So like I was taking a break from trying to squeeze three chapters of my very heavy and nauseatingly boring corporate finance textbook into my left ear and thot I'd catch up on Curry's, Art's, Resh's and Tammy's lives. Bad idea. It has just occurred to me that Halloween, Diwali, 2 mid-terms, 2 papers and 3 presentations have gone by and I haven't blogged about any of it. Mostly because I was too bloody tired from having to lay the dynamite for when I will explode into the post-MS-MBA world of lots and lots of money but also significantly because I was too depressed to write. But I'll be better about it. I promise.
Tammy, I love your pinks and oranges and warm glows and please send me the AB jr. collage so I can freak out the people at Kinko's by printing it out in large color glossy poster size for my bedroom wall.
Resh, condiment bowls?! Honestly. *tch* I'm so proud of you now that you're all growed-up and taking care of your vaife and living in your own apartment and all. So very proud *sniff*.
Curry, my love, wot can I say? Every post makes me wish I had stolen you off to a dark corner when we were in Dubai and dragged your pants off. Heppy Diwali. I hope it was a lovely one. Don't be homesick. I'll send you goodies from Dubai in December.
Raj, if haute bong lass won't marry you, will you live in sin with me? Happy birthday, luv. I'm sorry I missed it. I'm glad you were born.
Tamm's pinkly oranges have inspired me to unchain myself from the red and work on a new template sometime this weekend. After my corporate finance exam. Chapters 5, 6 and 7. Which I am bound to mess up because I spent most of the bond valuation discussion in a daze. I need a coffee. Off to Starbucks I go.
Venti mocha no whip in case you were wondering.
Oh and remind me to tell you about my friend Em. He's very nice. He's very tall too. We spend a lot of time together. Mostly because I bully him into carrying my heavy bags and cooking me dinner.
I didn't even tell you about Black Cobra's kacchi misri did I? Tch. I'm horrible, yes I know. But I'll be good from now on.
I strangely smell sweet and sour sauce (inadvertant alliteration). Great, that's another thing I really need right now. A seizure.
So like, I have this odd skin condition right. Which makes it horribly uncomfortable to sit. Don't ask. I'll get the test results tomorrow. So after hopping around from seat to seat, trying every combination of leaning on one side more than the other, I've come to the conclusion that the least painful way of sitting is to scooch down on a couch in the library and put my feet up on another, appropriately draping my jacket over my skirted legs for modesty of course. This does sort of limit elbow movement and there are no power outlets where there are couches but with my excellent laptop I seem to be doing alright so far. Also there is the added advantage of having warm toes as covered by jacket which is always a plus. The only unfortunate part is that my extremely swollen abdomen gets a bit squished but there are prices to pay for even the most meager of comforts.
I am so glad that there are fewer sharp shooting pains up my legs that I just had to share this with you.
Awesome Flash game that highlights issues of EU aid for water and sanitation.
The rise of China and India will be better for the U.S. than the direst predictions hold -- yet worse than the Panglossian projections of boosters in America and Asia. On the upside, American consumers will clearly benefit from the availability of inexpensive goods and services. American shareholders of well-positioned multinationals will enjoy higher profits. And Americans employed in successful U.S. export sectors will benefit because China and India will buy more Western-style goods and services -- from cosmetics to jets to banking -- as they get richer and increase their consumption.Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Sexy Frenchie *hah*
On the downside, life will be tough for those who are less skilled, less educated, and less able to adapt as the world changes around them. Even many highly skilled American service workers, from programmers to financial analysts, will suffer as low-cost Asian giants target U.S.-dominated businesses. "The individuals who are able to take advantage of the new opportunities do extremely well. Those who are poorly situated get hammered," sums up Gordon H. Hanson, an economist at the University of California at San Diego.
Galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) isn’t a new technology, but it’s seeing some new application via Japan’s NTT Communication Science Labs: remote-controlled people. They’ve developed a headphone apparatus that delivers an electrical current to a mastoid worn behind the ear, which actually shifts one’s balance toward the anode. The stronger the applied current, the stronger the pull — strong enough to knock you off balance and alter the course of your movement. NTT is showing off the remote-controlling headphone system at SIGGRAPH, and has plans to commercialize the technology for use in gaming, and flight simulators.
Maybe if I get back into bed and pull the covers over my head then the loneliness will go away. Maybe I'll be warm then.
There are thousands of corporate aircraft flying the skies over the U.S. Most companies say these planes are necessary to conveniently and securely transport employees to distant facilities or meetings. Top executives "are really 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week people," notes Mike Nichols, an official with the National Business Aviation Association, a trade group. "These are really flying offices."There are perks and then there are perks.
But a comparison of golf scores and flight records, some of which are available from commercial aviation-data services, shows that companies also use their jets for another purpose: as airborne limousines to fly CEOs and other executives to golf dates or to vacation homes where they have golf-club memberships.
I'd post the standard requisition diya picture but that would be too cheesy.
Yes, I know I haven't written much and that people really don't care about business and stuff but life these days is buried in MBA crap. Midterms and papers and reports and presentations. Sucks out the time from one's day. Plus sometimes one just doesn't want to talk about oneself. This is a direct result of having to analyze onself, talk about oneself, assess oneself ad nauseam. I don't need to know this much about me. I wrote a 12 page paper on me two weeks ago for cryin' out loud. Nothing fun happens anymore anyway. Well, nothing that's not MBA related.
So read dem business articles I post and one day when I'm not surrounded by professors screaming at me to self-analyze I shall write a nice long one about me.
Had my Accounting team presentation today - the women were inadvertantly color-coordinated in black and tan and the men in black and blue. It's nice to wear a suit to school.
Mother leaves Little Rock for Dubai today and so, of course, self is hugely depressed.
Lots of aches and pains. Think I'm getting old.
So like, in the middle of an Accounting class, when lots of people were walking in and out, Smith actually said, "Is this Churchgate station, I ask you?! I don't think so!" Too funny.
Over two hundred of Hollywood’s top animation experts are moving to Dubai, in an attempt to develop the world’s biggest outsourcing centre for movie animations.Read more here...
"We will bring in talent from the US for this — we're talking about Oscar-winning animators — who will relocate to Dubai and be able to produce 3-D animations. These will be of movie quality — so, for example, a lot of the production for a movie like Star Wars could be outsourced."
Nakheel boss Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, and flamboyant real estate mogul Donald Trump are pouring millions into a massive joint development.Read more here...
Two weeks ago, Nakheel, developer of more than US$30 billion in real estate in Dubai, and The Trump Organisation stunned the region, revealing plans to invest US$400 million into a tulip-shaped hotel on The Palm man-made island development in Jumeirah.
This is still a problem for the majority of vendors in the Middle East. They will talk until their blue in the face about the importance of channel support and development, and then implement a financial model that completely undermines these lofty ambitions. Unless the fundamentals of the financial model underpinning the Middle East channel are addressed soon, the market is going to face a credit crunch.It snowed yesterday. The first snow is always so very nice. I also found a Reef restaurant close to home with excellent baba gannouj and grape leaves. Methinks dinner tonight shall be Lebanese. Ooooo... kahweh...
The basic economic theory that people work harder to avoid losing money than they do to make money is shared by monkeys, suggesting this trait has a long evolutionary history, according to a study conducted by M. Keith Chen, Venkat Lakshminaryanan, and Laurie Santos.
This phenomenon, known as "loss aversion," refers to the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. In this study, tufted capuchin monkeys were given small disks to trade for rewards—apples, grapes or gelatin cubes. The monkeys were given a budget of disks and asked to decide how much to spend on apples, and how much to spend on the gelatin cubes, even as the prices of these goods and the size of their budgets fluctuated. Capuchins performed much like humans do. Capuchins, like humans, react rationally to these fluctuations.
"The economic view says people are aware, rational and in control of their major decisions," said Chen. "Social psychology cuts in the opposite direction, maintaining that people are often unaware of the forces that dictate their behavior. We wanted to understand the interactions of these two things. What we’ve shown is that capuchin monkeys look remarkably like us; making rational decisions in many of the same settings that humans get right, but also make many of the same mistakes we make."
Their work provides an evolutionary spin on the current debate about why Americans do not save enough for retirement or put enough of their savings into the stock market. "We are fighting tendencies that may be biologically hard-wired," said Chen.
A method, a computer system and a computer-readable medium having instructions for a processor stored thereon are provided for growing a page on a display. Input indicating a first position or designation of content on a page of an electronic document and an amount of white space to be inserted in the page is received. Responsive to the received input, at least some of the content of the page of the electronic document is moved to insert white space. The moving starts from a point based on the first position. The portion of the content being moved is moved a distance based on the amount of white space indicated in the received input. The page is grown by an amount based on the amount of the white space indicated in the received input. A respective size of other pages of the electronic document remains unchanged. Also provided are a method, a computer system and a computer-readable medium having instructions for a processor stored thereon for deleting a portion of a page and reducing a size of the page.
For all dem harried MBA students -
"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose."
If you want to buy me this book, I wouldn't mind.
...have a look at Apple's Cupertino headquarters from Google and MSN's rival map sites. Both sites offer aerial photos alongside maps.
...Google shows the Apple Cupertino HQ - a lovely, shiny building probably full of iPods. MSN on the other hand shows an apparently empty field. Not as much as a black turtle-necked jumper remains of Apple's headquarters. This could be no more than an old picture taken before Cupertino was built or a glimpse of an imagined future.
How this terrible error came about is not yet clear. Nor can we be certain who else has been removed from Bill's upgraded planet.
Saturday, Oct. 22
7:30 p.m.
Todd Wehr Auditorium
MSOE is organizing and hosting a concert to benefit victims of the recent earthquake in Pakistan, featuring Midwestern-based, seven-piece outfit, Eastern Passions. The band comprises artists who are originally from Pakistan (including MSOE associate professor Gul Afshan), United States and India. They play rich songs evoking life in South Asia, sung in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Siraiki. The group has a devoted following throughout the Midwest.
Rounding out the program will be musicians from MSOE’s student body including the MSOE Symphony Orchestra, String Quartet and The Sound Engineers pep band.
Free parking is available in the MSOE lot at Broadway and Highland; admission donation is $8 per person.
MSOE was saddened to learn of the death of Ray W. Palmer ’68 on Oct. 5, a long-time professor and administrator at MSOE, including chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, and two-time interim vice president of academics before retiring in 2004.
Throughout his career Palmer received many awards and honors, including MSOE’s Oscar Werwath Distinguished Teacher Award, the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year award, MSOE Professor Emeritus status and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Memorial Award. He also was a consultant to numerous companies and had industrial experience with Allen-Bradley/Rockwell. He held a patent for a digital alarm system. We extend our condolences to his wife, Sharon, son, Mark (Dawn) Palmer, daughter, Nicole (Paul) Schmitt, and other family and friends. Memorials are being accepted for the Ray Palmer Endowed Scholarship Fund at MSOE (MSOE Development Office, 1025 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, WI 53202).
Click here for more information.
For those of you who were asking for the link - here it is. For those of you who weren't - click and read anyway. It's bloody hilarious.
Somewhere out there is a land many have only heard of or seen in their dreams, a place called the "the world's largest factory." A nation of manufacturers, a country spread out from one corner to the other, filled with factories, run by dynamic people engrossed in taking care of the world's supply of everything, from the smallest items to the biggest, from good quality products to best, from low cost to almost free.
Use of the word entrepreneur has been trademarked by the Los Angeles-based parent company of Entrepreneur Magazine. Entrepreneur Media Inc. (EMI) claims exclusive rights to use the word. Nobody can use it as apart of a domain name, a publication name, for entertainment purposes, or for radio and TV programs.
Branding is often presented as a culturally, emotional or lifestyle crazy, sugarcoated packaging process. Sometimes it is like rap music, with spinning colors or psychedelic pastel overtones accompanied with hip-hop idea drivers.
Tommy Thompson distinguished himself as the first Wisconsin governor elected to four consecutive terms, and he has now set a new precedent: the first Wisconsin governor to be tagged with radio frequency identification for digital access to his medical records.
"The company manufactures passive RFID tags which store a unique 16-digit identification number that provides access to a user's healthcare records. The tags are about the size of a grain of rice and in human users are injected into the fatty tissue of the tricep muscle."
While Gartner doesn't actually call entrepreneurs crazy, he does say they’re not entirely normal. He says that entrepreneurs – especially serial entrepreneurs – have a specific psychiatric disorder known as hypomania, which may be the wellspring for the talent it takes to be an entrepreneur:
He added: "Hypomanics are brimming with infectious energy, irrational confidence and really big ideas. They think, talk, move and make decisions quickly. Anyone who slows them down with questions 'just doesn't get it'. While hypomanics aren't mental cases, 'normal' isn't the first word that comes to mind when describing them. Hypomanics live on the edge between normal and abnormal."
The state Assembly on Thursday passed AB 499, a proposed ban on all forms of human cloning in Wisconsin.Doyle pledges veto - read it here.
The bill would outlaw the cloning of embryos both for reproductive purposes and for what practitioners have called research or therapeutic cloning, the making of a cloned embryo for the purpose of extracting stem cells. Penalties for violating the bill if it were to become law would go up to ten years in prison and $1 million in fines.
destroying a cloned embryo to obtain its cells for research is morally wrong. It may be just a microscopic blob of undifferentiated stem cells, opponents argue, but it’s still human life.Because, you know, we'd rather send thousands of kids into war for a pointless argument over which country gets more oil. Read it all here. That's ok. At least the British have their head screwed on straight.
A research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has succeeded in enticing human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons, the cells that transmit messages from the brain to the rest of the body.I need to get me a wired swimsuit.
Externally, the bridge looks identical to its adjacent twin. However, internally, the concrete deck reinforced with a novel fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) grid system that could replace conventional epoxy-coated reinforcing bars (rebars) inside future bridges.Bridges go hi-tech - read it here.
The Wisconsin Department of Administration announced on Monday a $15,000 technological feasibility grant will be awarded to the Madison Environmental Group consulting firm to develop cars operating on vegetable oil. Madison Environmental will be working with the restaurant chain Culver's, which has successfully modified two diesel engine cars to use filtered oil from the fryers.Back to work.
So this is your assignment for the day - how do you tell a housemate and a classmate that she stinks? That sitting next to her makes people's eyes water and leaves a foul taste in their mouth? That one other classmate described being around her less pleasurable than gouging one's own eyes out?
Yes, I'm talking about stinky Lil. She hasn't showered in a week. I don't think she's washed her clothes since she got here. She eats a lot of dumplings.
I so need to get her out of the apartment.
So like, I just had lunch with the Dean, Lou Lataif. It was very interesting. The lunch was pretty crappy but the conversations made up. I really like my class. I must now go read for tomorrow's organizational behaviour class.
I need a nap.
Ramadan - "The Astronomical New Moon is on Monday October 3, 2005 at 10:28 Universal Time. Looking at the visibilty curve one can understand that the moon is in the Southern Hemisphere. The moon is about 15 hours old and being too low on the horizon for North America will set in 14 min. after sunset on west coast. It cannot be seen in North America nor anywhere East of USA October 3. On October 4, it will be visible in most of the world except most of Asia and Europe, where it will be 24 to 31 hours old and less than 2 degrees above the horizon, still not visible. In Europe and most of Asia, it cannot be seen until October 5, when it will be 48 to 55 hours old. Accordingly, the first day of Ramadan will be on Wednesday, October 5, 2005 for North America and most of the world, except most of Asia and Europe, Insha-Allah."
Eid-al-Fitr - "The Astronomical New Moon is on Wednesday, November 2, 2005, at 1:25 Universal Time, i.e. November 1, 8:25pm Eastern Standard Time - or 5:25pm Pacific Standard Time. On November 2, the moon would be about 24 hours old on West Coast of USA and still could not be seen, because the moon will be in Southern Hemisphere. It could be seen in South America and possibly with aided eye (Binocular/telescope) in South Africa. So, Eid in South America and possibly, South Africa could be on Thursday, November 3, 2005. But in North America it is expected that Eid will be on Friday, November 4, 2005. Similarly, in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Australia, Eid is expected to be on Friday, November 4, 2005, Insha'Allah."
"As they emerge on the global stage, Chinese companies will need 75,000 world-class managers during the next 10 to 15 years, according to commercial intelligence firm Asia Pulse. Today, there are only an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 such executives, it said last month."Read more...
"IBM is planning to hire more than 14,000 new workers in India this year, even as the company proceeds with layoffs of up to 13,000 workers in Europe and the United States, the New York Times reported Friday, citing an internal company document."Read more...
"POLITICAL leaders in the Arab world are seen as ‘mostly corrupt’, according to 55% of respondents to a recently conducted survey by Arabian Business and respected opinion pollsters YouGov. Just 1% considered all Arab leaders ‘honest’."Read more...
"THE HIV virus is losing it killer potency, according to a leading research team that claim it is showing the effects of old age and beginning to weaken. The startling news emerged after experts examined the current day virus and compared it with a sample of the fatal germ taken some 15 years ago."Read more...
"THE MIDDLE EAST ECONOMY IS to continue soaring as cash-rich customers are set to fuel the retail boom for years to come, according to one of the region’s leading industry analysts."Read more...
So like I think I bombed my Financial Management midterm this morning. I would love to blame it on not being prepared for it because Dad and Black Cobra were up every bloody hour to clomp to the bathroom. But that's not true! I WAS prepared! I studied! I did! I read both chapters, made notes, did all the examples, did all the problems at the back, read the class notes, compiled a very sexy cheat sheet and then did last year's midterm for practice! I was prepared! I was confident! I was aiming for an A-/B+.
C is prolly wot I'm going to end up with. Everybody else's exam wasn't so hot either so I'm banking on the curve for this one. This bites.
Just got done with another excellent lunch whilst learning about careers in marketing. I shall now try and get unbummed and do Stats homework.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that I now have furniture?! I have furniture! Real honest-to-goodness furniture! The same Walmart black metal futon that I've bought and rebought and rebought for years but it's still furniture! (with an impossibly thick mattress) Bless the parents and Black Cobra for it. Now if I could only get rid of the mouse in the kitchen, life would be good.
My mother and my sisTER!
are here to visit ME!
now I have a lot of stu-UFF!
blessed blessed BE!
... and I'm still here. Check out AME Info's excellent coverage. A few pictures below - courtsey www.gitex.com
I'm sorry I left like that. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to stay there feeling sad. I thought if I left and started my day, the sadness would go away. If I left your world that smelt of you. A little musky. Looked like you. A little messy and not all quite there at times. Your world positively rings of you. There's a whistling in the air that lulls me to sleep. Shoulders that cradle my chin. I thought that the sadness would go away if I removed myself from your world. It didn't. I walked into my room and had this overwhelming desire to curl up in the fireplace and evaporate. Maybe then the sadness will go away. It won't. I can't make it. It keeps coming back. My hair, my skin, my lips, my eyes... they all remind me of you. I had to shower to scrub you out of me. I saw you standing there. Looking so lost and a little angry. I had to wait to leave. I didn't want to see you looking lost and a little angry. I didn't want you to see me. But you have to understand. I was incapable. I couldn't do it on my own. For a little while, I couldn't even breathe on my own. I couldn't get out of bed much less face the world. Go about life. I would drown. You weren't meant to let me fall. But then again, you never did say you'd hold me up.
My head won't stop. It won't let it go. We need to let it go. Maybe tomorrow the sadness will go away. Or the day after that. Or the week after that. Or the next year. Or another nine years from now.
Has it been that long already? Why does it still seem like it's happening now? That I'm in the middle of it. At this very point in time. Sitting here in a cool, calm, silent library surrounded by the sound of my own screaming. And those vacant eyes looking up at me. Those eyes cried before they closed. I think they didn't want to. I think that's why they cried. I think that's why I cry too.
It's the wrong time to be thinking like this. Life's too short. Gotta move on. Crying is for wimps.
That's ok. You never did say you'd stay. I shouldn't have asked.
I am so cold that my toes are numb. They've been numb for most of the night. I'm so cold that I want to shiver only I can't. I'm too cold to shiver. I should have stayed with M. I should have stayed with M. M has a big warm comfy blanket. I should have stayed with M. I should have stayed with M. I should have stayed with M. I'm so cold that I'm miserable. I'm cold enough to be wearing two pairs of socks. It doesn't help. I don't like being cold. I'm so cold that I'm resting my laptop on my feet in the hope that the warmth from the machine will make my toes look less blue. And make the rest of me feel less blue. Tomorrow I will stay with M. On Saturday Black Cobra will bring my warm clothes and blankets. But tomorrow I will stay with M. I should have stayed there tonight. I should have.
Especially if it's the Symphony.
"Here, a desired life in music is grounded in great teaching, demanding performance, solid scholarship and devoted love of the art. We are a community wholly in love with the study of, creation of, performance of, MUSIC!" - Phyllis Curtin, Dean Emerita, Boston University College of Fine Arts.
So like tonight I went to see the Boston University Symphony Orchestra at the Tsai Performing Center, conducted by David Hoose. They played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in D Major and Rimsky's Scheherazade. The principal violinist, Wonjung Choi, was spectacular. I've still got her solo in my head.
Gots to study for finance exam next week before the family arrives. Goodnight and God bless.
So like I just entered the grad lounge and was immediately assaulted by the overpowering smell of desi food. I mean it just reached up from the carpets and slapped me in the face. Repeatedly. The grad lounge is also full of 2nd yrs busily working on what looks like strategy or finance homework. Good to see them busy once in a while. Got a peer group meeting in 10 mins and am totally unmotivated.
Had ream review yesterday and J, when told that his comments were sexist, asked if they were good sexist comments. To which I snapped "when are they ever?!" accompanied with a searing look and a mean eyebrow wriggle. And so of course, he now avoids me like dengue fever. Which I find very amusing. "Wolfie kicks some serious ass" was the headline of the moment.
Have managed to bully Stinky Lil into staying until November 1 and told her to get her own room rented. Oh, that's right. You don't know. Ok, here's the background information.
Jo and Daph (otherwise known as the Jap Porn chicks) rented this 3 bedroom apartment with Stinky Lil and then didn't want to live with her anymore so they roped me into staying there and finding a third. Only, Stinky Lil kicked up a fuss and wanted to leave (which is fine by me, I don't want to live with her) but that would make me responsible for $2100 which I didn't want to be. So after an entire month of agonizing over roommates and housing and rentals and staying over at friends' places because I couldn't buy furniture because I didn't know how long I'd be there and contracting various ailments directly associated with stress and heartburn, I have finally managed to bully Stinky Lil into being responsible for her own bloody room. Come Nov 1, if she don't rent out her space, either Hannah and me leave for a 2-bed or we stay and sublet from Jo and Daph. So this is the situ. Also, all I have is a mattress on the floor. Admittedly the room is pretty big and the apartment is quite nice. It's not the greatest, but it's liveable. And big. Big and liveable.
So anyway. Mum, Dad and Black Cobra arrive on Saturday and I'm terrified because I have nothing. Just one sad mattress. And the cable isn't connected yet and I have no teevee and no couch and no pots and no pans and nothing. I have nothing.
Can you tell I'm freaking out?! Also, I have this stupid peer meeting with two individuals who, nice as they are, simply cannot help me with my career choices because one is a fashion designer and the other is a finance major and they know next to nothing about the online media business. Not to mention that I know nothing about the fashion industry and/or finance. Oh, wot a merry match are we.
Did I mention that Boston is SO not a service-oriented town? This place sucks big time when it comes to the service industry. Today already my realtor has managed to tick me off on three separate occasions (and it's only 3 pm). I shall find another realtor. I shall try and keep my cool. Lovely Mattie said yesterday that he liked how I always have a sense of humor, bless 'im. Apparently even when Wolfie is bitchy, she's funny.
Ok, fashion lady is waving frantically through window so I guess it's peer team meeting time.
Oh, and by the way, Wolfie now comes in RSS. Right click, save shortcut and add to your favorite RSS reader. Remember to send money.
The Faculty Council today released preliminary results of a study finding that faculty salaries at Boston University on average are lower than at comparable universities and that female faculty at BU are paid less than their male colleagues."President Brown vows to address 'serious issue' of gender gap in pay."
This post is for A.P. and his unparalleled geekiness.
Linux swear words are all the rage these days.
Stuart Qualtrough does a good job of telling it like it is - Kofi Annan needs to go. But we all know he won't. Which is probably why people are still starving in Africa and fighting in the Middle East.
He is also bang on about Western presence in Iraq - unfortunately, nothing will be done about that either. Heaven forbid that an administration accept they made a wrong decision. A classic example of group think.
It's about time Emirates Airlines did something about their bad service. EA used to offer the best service - alas, no more. Top management gets the boot. Read more here.
The Badmash Crew have a hilarious video about Gramma and the Wurizon guy - check it out. Caution: Video with sound.
Check out Vault's rankings on the top 50 consulting firms - Boston Consulting Group is looking better and better.
Been summonned by classmate to Starbucks to check out hot undergrads in tight t-shirts and mentally throw cans of tranquilizer gas at.
And I can't go! This is horrible! Have you seen the lineup?! This sucks! This sucks big time!
But Wolfie, you may ask, who are all these people?
These people, YOU DIMWIT, I'll reply, are as follows -
Bill Clinton - former President of the US
Frederik Willem de Klerk - the last State President of South Africa
Madeleine Albright - permanent United States representative to the U.N and former Secretary of State
Mahathir bin Mohamed - 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia
Arie de Geus - he IS (or rather WAS) Royal Dutch Shell
Scott Bedbury - headed Nike's worldwide marketing division
Kenichi Ohmae - co-founded McKinsey's strategic management practice in Japan and South Asia
Daniel Pink - speech writer to Al Gore
Spencer Johnson - Medical Director of Communications for Medtronic
And to think I wrote my one of my final papers in undergrad on the 3 types of pacemakers offered by Medtronic *sniff*.
This sucks. *pout*
"...the tallest building in the world upon completion. Named Burj Dubai, the tower will combine residential and commercial space, including the first Giorgio Armani hotel, entertainment complexes and the world's largest shopping mall. Parks, water features and pedestrian-only streets are also incorporated into the project's design."
Google is taking over the world.
Google's stated mission -- "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" -- is nearly met. Recently, Google began service in Romansh, a language employed by 35,000 Swiss. We pose the question: If Google grew in June by adding Romansh, how will it grow in July -- by addressing Antarctica's penguin population? We suspect not. Instead, once Google corners the last bit of global information, it will turn to organizing users of information -- i.e., humanity -- making us universally accessible and useful.How to get rich... slow?
So like apparently, my Gemininess extends to beyond being two-faced. Apparently, I'm multi-persona-ed. I have an evil twin. Her name is Lara. She's mean and chews chaps mercilessly and spits them out for lunch. And she's belligerent and tenacious. Oh, yes, and measured.
Don't ask. That's wot Mikey said.
I met a flute player today. We didn't exactly exchange words but we met. I was walking down the street in my wedding sandals looking for a bed to buy and there he was on the street corner playing his hand-made wooden flute. He had dreadlocks that looked like they hadn't been washed since the first coming and he was wearing reggae clothes. You know the ones I mean. The green and yellow ponchos with the square hat. Wearing reggae clothes and walking down the street playing his flute. I walked right into the path of incoming music. The notes hit me like various little wasps. Stung my face. He looked up at me, took a deep breath in-between notes and went right on playing. And he was playing my song. Like he almost meant to say, "my wife had champagne shoulders".
"There wasn't even a double space in between the text. That was really upsetting." - team member Kenny talking about a really long boring article to be read for class.
"How does it know the time? Mine just knows." - more from team member Kenny talking about laptop battery life.
"We're going to fine tune you till you die. Welcome to life." - executive presentations instructor talking about the learning process.
"Every time I pause, I kill an 'umm'. An 'umm' has died. I've killed a filler. It's a filler killer." - the same instructor talking about pausing in-between thoughts when you're presenting.
"When you start talking, your hands will pop right up. It's a miracle. There they are." - same instructor talking about gesturing and body posture.
"If they're in tuxes, break out the sequins." - same instructor talking about how one should dress for one's audience.
Also, I had a lovely chat with the Manager of Media Sales for Yahoo! Local (important stuff needs to have capital letters) who had these wise things to say -
"There are two types of people in the world - those that want to be at the top and those that are scared of the bottom."
"People make success. If the market is [conducive] and you have a good team, the success will come."
"It's only good business if it's good business." - yes, I know what that sounds like.
"Integrity is vital. You have to care about what you do. At the end of the day, you have to know that you made good on your word. Somebody's business is better because of your efforts."
I also spoke with an Account Director at Porter Novelli in D.C. (oh the family sticks together, dintcha know?) and the VP of Media Sales at 360i.
And all of these were cold calls. I'm so proud of myself *big grin*.
Ok. To lab to print, to bookstore to buy dividers (why is it that one always runs out of dividers?!), to home to eat and then perhaps a walk around the block. Bring your umbrella, it looks like rain.
Free speech? You must be joking!
Al Jandaly’s detention is all the more surprising considering the UAE’s constitution states the country provides for ‘freedom of speech’. However, in practice this is severely restricted as most UAE-based publications are still told what can and cannot be reported — the reason for the strong regulatory and political control of media content in the UAE.Thuraya phones seized in India.
Furthermore, the UAE Printing and Publishing Law, 1980, contains article 81, which states that it is prohibited to publish news that causes harm to the national currency or causes damage to the national economy.
PRINCE Alwaleed Bin Talal, the world’s richest Arab, last week revealed plans to float hotel and media assets worth more than US$2 billion in Dubai and London over the next two years.If you look closely, Emaar's financial reporting is a bit .. shall we say.. inconclusive?
REAL ESTATE giant Emaar Properties reported a net profit of US$328 million for the second quarter of this year, down some 8.8% from the company’s first-quarter results of US$360 million.I can't remember if I blogged about Nakheel's empty villa compound but I found this very disturbing. May I remind you that these are the people building The Palms and The World.
A UK broadsheet claimed the US$3 billion project was in jeopardy and accused developers of over-utilising the site. It said they were building too many homes in too small a space, making access in and around the man-made island a nightmare.Petrol prices went up in the UAE?! I'm in shock!
SHARJAH in the United Arab Emirates is planning an enormous offshore development to rival the Palm projects currently under construction in Dubai.Oh please, Sharjah ain't got nothing on Dubai.
Dubai’s bullish financial markets were shaken to the core last week after it was discovered that US$2 billion worth of trading had to be wiped out because of a fake deal scandal. The shock move was revealed after an entire month’s worth of share dealing was ploughed into one company in a single day.Read it all here...
The spectacle of impoverished nations like Afghanistan and Bangladesh ferrying emergency aid to the wealthiest country on the planet serves as a grim notice to us all.Am I the only one who thinks that there's something suspicious about Mother Nature going berserk so soon.. so fast.. ?
Apparently, I'm like Goddess Parvati. Meenakshi was the incarnation of Devi/Parvati sent down by the gods when the king asked for a son. When she was first born, she had three breasts. The gods said that once she met her true love, the third breast would disappear. She was raised with the education and training of a boy and became a great queen and fearsome warrior. She went with her army to conquer Mount Kailash where she met Shiva, god of destruction and (you guessed it) her true love. She lost her three-breast deformity and they ruled the kingdom from Madurai as deities on earth. (Photo - 2003, Madurai Pudu Mandapam Bazaar, Tamil Nadu, India)
There aren't any German men to date, Black Cobra. Although nice gay man #1 did volunteer to pretend to be a)German and b)my boyfriend just so my mother would make him butter chicken.
Which reminds me, I need to find a decent shawarma place in town.
Sunday was rather uneventful. Did manage to find 3 women who would like to move in with me so that was nice. Didn't do much. Took a nap. Cooked some desi food with some friends. Read the newspaper - all 3lbs. of it. Read a case for class today.
Had my first marketing and data analysis classes today. DA was blech. Marketing sounds promising. Have more reading to do for tomorrow.
Party on Sat night was fun. Said something hugely embarassing which included the words 'spraying', 'penis', 'after party' and 'bubbles'. Also found yet another marvelous chap who is unfortunately gay. Oh well.
Was hugged by AJ's bizzaro twin and I think a few ribs are broken. Some chaps just don't know their own strength.
Ok, back to work.
So last night, as I was clomping through the streets of Boston looking like a bag lady, I dropped my cellphone right outside the building I live. And some nice guy found it and put it in a plastic bag and left it behind the column of the entrance to the building after calling the last dialled number (which happened to be the Googster) letting her know where it was so she could let me know. Reaffirmed my faith in mankind it did. Especially in a town where cellphones, laptops and mp3 players are hot property.
By the way, in Boston, EVERYBODY is walking the streets with a cellphone, a laptop and an mp3 player. Also, this seems to be an iPod dominated market. Plus there are too many giggly undergrad girls.
Did I tell you about the athletic center? We have two pools - one for recreation and the other for laps! Yay! Finally, an aquatic center that got it right! No more running into idiots who don't observe appropriate pool protocol! The competition pool is 16-lane by 10-lane and has upto a metre diving boards. I'm thinking of signing up for classes next term.
Ok, class resumes. Remember to rent Miracles this weekend. It's a good movie. How do I know? 'Cuz I just saw it in my org. behaviour class of course. Right after Gandhi, a documentary on the Navy Seals and Gene Kelly.
So like, I think it's finally hit me. I'm in an MBA program at one of the top universities in the world.
Today we had a combined class with all the three sections in 1st year. Had a small leadership exercise and, as usual, Wolfie had to take charge to win and win we did. They all hate me now because I was belligerent and barking out orders but we did achieve the goal and win 5 dozen doughnuts (which is all that counts really). And I think now I understand why they say that the friends you make at grad school are the ones that stay with you for a long long time. I think I made one last night.
And why are the good ones always gay?! 'snot fair. Hmm... wonder if I can convince him to swing my way. Any tips?
Mum's in LR with Black Cobra compulsively cleaning the kitchen. Can't wait till they get here. Miss 'em horribly.
Simply must get furniture today and tomorrow. Maybe even start painting and staining. I have ugly puky green walls that I think I want to turn into two-tone blue and there's an unfinished furniture place around the corner for bookcases and desks and stuff which would work well with a few tins of bright stains. Plus I have windows that need curtains. This setting up house thing is always fun.
Have to read two chapters before Monday's data analysis class. That should be interesting when I'm on a high from paint fumes.
So any ideas for a mural for the bedroom ceiling? I'm feeling Michaelangelo-ish. And don't say abstract. Last thing I need after a long hard day of being a grad student is to come home and lie in bed and have to think about the patterns on the walls.
Have to move classrooms. Too many noisy undergrads in here. Be back shortly.
So like after being in class and meetings for about 13 hours yessterday, while I was researching for my Saturday paper, Artraj popped online on MSN and that little window with his picture in it (plus his suxy chin) pinged on my laptop and in the middle of all the madness, I smiled. I smiled because he looked so .. Artraj. Confident, fun, nice and a little tired.
So, everybody, put pictures on your MSN. Your friends want to see you. Especially the ones that aren't around you.
I'm running an hour late this morning. Yesterday we watched Seabiscuit. The day before it was the Navy Seals. The day before that it was a Gene Kelly movie. It's not so bad doing all this analysis. In fact, it's a little bit fun. I guess I brushed up with the job at the agency.
Ok, time for class. Oo donuts.
The prof just put on Dave Brubeck. Hell yeah this is going to be fun!
"Such learning is intrinsically difficult because the reexamination of basic assumptions temporarily destabilize our cognitive and interpersonal world, releasing large quantities of basic anxiety."
Oh, and we also watched Seabiscuit.
I remember discussing with Flip about how the Middle Eastern market isn't ready to ride the e-learning curve just yet but hey, there just may be a job for me after I graduate in 2 years eh?
Sure RFID provides a lot of information, but do we need it all? Also, where are we gonna put it?
Al-Futtaim gets web-based tracking for its vehicles! Whoo hoo! About time someone caught up on that idea. However, I think that the U.S. and Europe implementation is more important as far as market share goes. But I think its awesome that hi-tech is hitting the Middle East with full gusto.
More later. I have a paper due tomorrow.
Got apartment. Stayed over at friend's place because no mattress and didn't want to sleep on the cold hardwood floor. Got my organizational behavior class in 15 minutes and I'm bloody starving. Need to go shopping for food and a matress after class. Too busy too busy aaaaah.
So how are you?
What am I doing here? I left a lovely home with a kick-ass job to live in this horrid town where you can't find a decent, clean, safe place to live for love or money. My laptop battery is running out, I can't find a single three pin socket, I have no internet connection, I'm bloody hungry because I haven't had breakfast or lunch, there isn't a single commercial establishment within a 3 mile radius and every time I poke my head out the door I get asked if I've found a place to live yet.
I don't want to be here like this. I want to be settled in and unpacked and working on school. It doesn't help that everybody and their uncle calls me from fun exciting places to tell me what a joy their lives are. Bah humbug. I could do with a healthy dose of the Cartoon Network and a very large cup of coffee. I'm going to have to get my ass off this bed and haul it into town to get some chow and a few bits and bytes or I'll just lie here in my depressed melancholy until the putrid smell of old people food overcomes me and I start retching.
Did I ever tell you that, by the way? Old people and babies make me physically ill. I know it's a horrible thing to say and feel but it's true. They make me want to throw up. I cannot eat at a table with old people or babies. I get all nauseous and have to throw up. I don't know why this is. I was a baby once. I shall be an old person soon enough. It's bizzare. Does it have a name? It's not a phobia. It's just.. well.. bizzare.
Anyway. If this post has seen the light of day it means I've scrounged up enough change for the subway and I'm in a hotspot.
Post note note -
So like the day wasn't so bad. I got fed (which is always nice) and watched some tennis and read the New Yorker's 75th Anniversary compilation of comic strips and had a crazy conversation with Black Cobra Hello comprising mostly of 'hellos' and 'wots?!'.
Did I ever tell you about Prakash? He's from down south somewhere. I sat next to him in accounting and the very first question he asked me was, "how much did you get on your GMAT?". Upon being told and after seeing me zip through the accounting problems he is convinced I'm some sort of gal-genius (which, I'm sure he finds very surprising seeing as I'm a)non-brahmin, b)an NRI, c)a girl and d)from the north. He did question my heritage and made pointed references to the quality of education received outside the glorious sub-continent and I glared at him and said something inane like, "well aren't we all NRIs now?" At which point he scuttled off to do homework. On Thursday afternoon. For a Tuesday morning class. And wouldn't come out drinking with us. "Obviously not". And he didn't sit with me at lunch on Friday. I think that's 'cuz he noticed I was eating a roast beef sammich at one point. Very strange.
Oh and Madan is only 23. He reminds me of A.P. Kinda looks like him too. I'm quite taken with him. He's a smart cookie that one. Bugger'll prolly do better. Still. It's nice that he reminds me of A.P.
Dude, this obsession has to end.
Which reminds me. Kuttyman and I are going to start up www.sambarweddings.com. You know, for those sweet, unassuming telu ones. They're nice guys and nice guys need love too. That and I'm thinking of an alternative BU film festival. Wot say? Think this town could do with some more culture? I mean, the Pops are a hard act to follow.
The apartment hunt continues tomorrow. Pray Wolfie finds her studio/loft w/ hrdwd flrs/ht/hw inc. nr T & lndry. I'm going to go sneak downstairs and dig into the Turkish sweets I got mine host. He doesn't seem to want any so I guess that's ok.
... I'd be plodding through the streets of Newton at 12:30 am lost, bewildered and in a panic. Thank you for caring enough to call me for a sanity check. You are truly a friend.
I'm piggy-backing on someone's open wireless network here. Hoo hah!
Got an email from Walshy (bless 'im) that has the word "darling" in it and I can just hear him say it and it gives me goosebumps it does.
You know, there are direct flights from Boston to London. But sadly not Brum.
It's been almost a week and it feels like so much longer. Boston is a town for pedestrians. But not pedestrians who, at any given point, lug around heavy laptops and at least 3 binders bursting with information. Monday night was spent schmoozing with the Women's MBA Association which translates into - a housefull of shrill, high-pitched, career-oriented, sushi-snarfing chicks. Hostess was amazing. Her resume would probably be heavier than my laptop.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have been spent in orientation. Yes, 5 days of orientation. With one more to go tomorrow, thank heavens. Tons of work ahead. At least we get fed. Well, mostly.
When not in seminars and other planned events, I have been walking the streets looking for a place to live. Got my eye on this nice 3 BR/1 bath/prch/ht&hw place close to campus. Problem is, it's on the 2nd floor with no elevator. Good thing is, it's got hardwood floors. Which may be a pain in the winter but oh boy are they good to slide on.
I've got me a new phone. The Motorola V180. Pretty decent, 'cept I dropped it and now it's scratched. The navigation is very un-usable and non-intuitive and everytime I want to do something basic like delete a phonebook entry I start wishing I had read the manual.
Haven't seen the highly touted athletic center yet. S'posed to have all sorts of pool-ness going on. Will check it out when have settled in new apartment. Staying with friends in Newton and it's a very long walk from the subway stop, plus I have to go up one to change trains from school and it takes about an hour to get home by which time I'm drenched (it rains a lot these days) and very blistered. Hoping to get the housing situ sorted by this weekend so can enjoy last few days of non-stress and sit in Harvard Square snorting espressos with some brains.
Have met my team. Seem harmless enough. Got a Sherpa in the group. And a dentist. And a VP of finance. 'Cuz, you know, those are just the sort of folks who need double Masters' degrees in information systems and business administration.
No internet connection at where I'm staying right now, hence the gaps in blog posts. No time at school because too busy running around trying to get shit accomplished. But I'm sure once I've got my own place with wireless, you'll be seeing a lot more of me online. Until then, find comfort and solace in the fact that wherever you are, there's a girl in Boston walking down the street listening to MC Solaar wondering why you haven't called her yet.
Need to go order business cards now.
At least for the moment. Rather uneventful flight. Prolly 'cuz I slept through most of it. What is it about clouds that make them look like cotton candy? Here's a tip - don't watch Constantine and then pop off to sleep on a plane and wake up to lovely clouds and sunrises. Freaks you out it does. I swear I seen an angel. Horrible food they serve on flights. Although I'll bet it was better in business class. British Airways does do a good business class with the nifty personal sleeping area and the hot breakfast and the proper cups and not those sad plastic ones that dent if you squeeze them too hard thereby spilling your tomato juice all over your lap. Then when you get off the plane, they pop you in a bus and drive you around for about 10 minutes, towards the end of which you're left wondering if they're taking you to Gatwick instead of Terminal 3 (countless times I've transisted via Heathrow and it still baffles me) and then you have to get off the bus and walk up narrow stairs (and they never tell you how many flights) and then go around and around until you get through security and get into the departure lounge which looks suspiciously like the one you passed right when you got off the plane back at arrivals.
Remind me to dig up my OneWorld Gold card.
There's a very confused woman staring at the "It's a phone too!" sign by the internet kiosk. I'm surrounded by hotspottedness. Alas, in true British style, I have to pay for it. Which I will do so shortly to post this post. After which I will wander over to the Virgin Megastore and scope some tunes. I'm surrounded by shops and screaming children and, bless, there's a Starbucks. Hey, if I'm going to be a true preppie, I better start acting like one. One venti caramel macchiato with soy milk and extra foam coming up. There's a Boots with a GBP 5 (I don't have the pound sign on my laptop - it's a Dell - a product of true-bleu American capitalism, thank you very much) skincare voucher, a Harrods with some nifty purple purses, a World of Whiskies (where you can buy 2 and save 10 pounds) and a Glorious Britain where I think I will purchase a very red white and blue sombrero. Because, you know, there's nothing more gloriously British than a somebrero.
I miss the Googster. She would be fun to be in Heathrow with.
Stupid screaming children won't shut up.
Someone to fill my petite sandals at work. And these are the resumes I get -
Hope my experience suits your requirements and i can associate with you
Looking forward to you for a better joint prospects
Keeping in view the required skills for the mentioned position, I think my self to be the most suitable candidate for the same and thus offer my services.
your job announcement is very attractive. The description of the tasks and requirements overlaps heavily with my former engagements, experiences and interests. Consequently, I have decided to apply for this position after thoroughly analyzing the announcement.
*banging head on desk*
So like Fujairah was so much fun that I totally forgot about you. I'll post pictures just as soon as I edit the videos. We got there (using Wolfie and her boss's nifty shortcut) in an hour and a half in boss's (the angry Irishman) Durango. Hoo mama, that car is sw-eet! Coldplay and Keane ruled the airwaves and Wolfie was one happy chick 'cuz she was finally returning to the desert.
Checked in to Sandy Bea-ch Hotel (which was such a dive), stripped down to skimpy nothings, lolled about on the beach, drank 2 beers (!), rolled over and promptly dived into the ocean. Swam upto Snoopy Island (I'll dig up a picture) and back, buried A.P. in the sand which was rather pointless since he insisted on breathing and shifting the sand on my efforts and leaped back into the sea again. Pretty much stayed there till dinner time which was A.P. madly fanning a dying BBQ with a snorkle flipper (too funny) and self hyperventilating about salmonella and other hideous diseases. Ate a par-grilled burger (rare meat anyone?) and jumped back into the ocean because didn't want to play complicated drinking card game with the rest (actually, I sat there for a good 5 minutes but couldn't understand most of it so I figured I was happily drunk enough). Did manage to beat A.P. at a ridiculously simple game of rummy (bless him) at which point he stormed off and popped off to bed, the party-pooper. A few hours of floating about on the waves being chewed by sea-lice, carried by Unnibeans, chased by Arv going "Hello, Mr. Andersen" every 5 minutes and off we went from the ocean to the pool. Which wasn't much fun but I did get some laps in. Another shower, more booze and a lot more lying about under the stars on the lovely beach and I was ready for bed. Would've slept under the stars if it wasn't for annoying chaps who just wouldn't stop talking. Stupid boys.
Woke up at the crack of dawn the next day and went for a long swim around Snoopy Island with a turtle who I affectionately named Moxy. The sea was relatively calm but I did get swept into some rocks and bruised one shoulder. Staggered into a ridiculously bad and over-priced breakfast and jumped back into the ocean. You starting to get the theme of this trip? Started to build a VERY sad sand-castle with Freelancer4 and A.P. and gave up. Started to light a fire in the BBQ with A.P. and gave up. No, not light the fire WITH A.P. although he would prolly burn better than kindling, rusky fellow.
Strolled into a very elaborate and a very lovely lunch buffet at the Meridian Resort next door and drove back to Dubai.
I am so horribly sunburnt that wearing clothes is a big problem. I am also very dark. Much like the ragamuffin I am. I was looking at my passport picture and reminiscing about the good ole' days of luminescent skin. Oh well. C'est la vie.
Rest of the week was spent madly handing over projects to the inimitable A.P. (Ally was right, maybe I should take him to Boston with me as my bitch *giggle*). Had a farwell dinner with the chaps at Nando's yesterday where they have these brilliant chilly sauces. Went out with the maddest of the lot last night for drinks. Started at the Agency and wound up at Harry Gatto's karaoke bar.
The madness and mayhem that ensued thereafter is too volatile to commit to words. Suffice to say that Filipino waitresses were felt up, Account Managers were set afire, self was swept off her feet (twice), clients were drunk, Art Directors were forcefully excellent dancers and the boss made rude gestures with a microphone. I did the tango with Arv and the salsa with Sully. The rest of it can't be described as dancing - it was jiggling with Unnibeans, hugging Rash and jumping up and down and at some point I think I was in a sandwich between Sully and Summer (which is a very *ahem* concept). There was also these two Arab chaps in dishdashas singing "Let me be your hero babee" albeit not to each other and one chap next to me kept thrusting a shot glass with something foul in it under my nose. Not to mention that everytime I went to the loo, I had a chaperone who was sometimes male. And Ant was doing some strange tai-chi exercises combined with a lot of air-guitaring.
Don't ask. If this was anywhere else but in Dubai, we would have so been kicked out of there.
We also sang abysmally bad songs. Badly. But a wonderful time was had by all. I sneaked out at 2 am because I got the Dad guilt trip which I now regret because apparently the party shifted to Summer's castle. By far THE most fun I've had.
Last day at work today. Prolly going to leave soon. Have loads to do.
Wolfe says:
aha
pekoe says:
o-ho
Wolfe says:
don't be cheeky
Off I go to Sandy Bee-atch Hotel in Fujairah with the office chaps and my box of tissues. Beware the sneeze, see on the flip side.
Deluged with pimples. Is deluged the word I want? Well anyway, you know wot I mean. Beseiged. Overwhelmed. Much like the rest of me. Overwhelmed.
There is so much to do. There are projects to hand over, financing to be found, sites to be built, specifications to be written, clients to be met, homework to be done, housing to be arranged, bags to be packed, tickets to be bought, parents to be fed, printers to be fixed... the list just doesn't end.
I know why my face is like a minefield. It's punishment. For being a horrible person. The sort of person who yells at nice, sweet, well-meaning, efficient, understanding, capable (did I mention nice?) Account Managers. And Technical Leads. For making jokes. That they have every reason to make. And instead of laughing along, wot do I do? I snap at them. Loudly. So everyone can hear. And then they're embarassed.
And then Dad keeps getting mad at me. And I don't know wot I've done.
And it just doesn't end. The list of things to do. It won't end. I have no more energy left. I can't take care of all these people and myself. I'm too tired. I'm tired and I feel like a horrible person for being tired and incapable of taking care of my life. I've made my choices but I can't seem to muster up the energy to fulfill demands made by my choices.
When will it end? Is it supposed to end? Is this how it is?
Sometimes you just want to lie in bed and cry and cry.
Just got home. Not very tired but brain hurts. I wanted to tell you about singing unconscious duets but I don't think I'll be able to do it justice. I guess you should have been there.
Bumped into high-school friend who works in the Towers. Little Lisa. Looks exactly the same. Will wonders never cease.
Looking forward to the Fujairah trip this weekend with the office folks. Must remember to load up mp3 player with lots of tunes seeing as will be carpooling with someone else who may not want to listen to sad sweet songs.
Got home just in time to catch the last bit of Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. Love the way that movie ends. Brilliant. Now shall load more sad sweet songs on mp3 player and potter off to bed. Tomorrow's another day.
Come away with me...
A certain audacious 'gentle'man (he once made me smile when I cried) suggested that the above combination of words searched in Google will lead you to this blog. To which I respond - and wot were you doing googling for this in the first place?!
The best product designs of 2005. That Rubbermaid Paint Buddy would have come in handy painting that damn dolphin on that chap's damn wall in freezing sub-zero weather. Don't worry if you don't know wot I'm talking about. This was probably before your time.
There's a new feature on this blog - Product Watch. Some awesome products and awesome product designs - I would so love to have these - would make trekking across the world for the 5th time a whole lot more fun. Will keep this as updated as possible.
So I was talking to Artraj earlier today and we were talking shop and it occurred to me that this is the latest creative I've done.
And some of this was actually done before 2000 and isn't even original! This bites. I need to do something about it. The logo, for starters, could do with a change. And contrary to one drunken monkey's suggestion, I will not add a woman looking left and put a candle between them. I'm not gay (yet) so keep your lezbean fantasies to yourself.
About cowboys in Delhi and Campaign newsletter and Flip's unethical cheekiness and how much I want Dhaval Desai never to be able to work in this town again and Mangal Pandey and dishdashas in bars and the latest Jumeirah Jane encounter but I'm tired and I have homework to do and it's late and you've already taken up so much of my time and I promise I'll talk to you later but let me go now or I won't get any sleep and then I'll be awake and then I'll be lonely and then I'll think about how I used to starch his shirts and collapse into one big sniffling mess and that won't be a good thing.
Besides, one post a day ought to be enough for you.
There's a place in New Delhi called Tilak Vihar Colony. That's where the Sikh widows live.
The Sikhs wanted political autonomy in India. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 by Sikh extremists because of her controversial decision to send troops into the Golden Temple.
She made this decision because Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers had taken over the temple and stockpiled guns, rifles, antitank missiles, rocket launchers, hand grenades and mortars. The encounter ended in slaughter - 259 Sikhs and 59 soldiers were killed, an additional 90 Sikhs and 110 soldiers were wounded. Unofficial figures placed the dead at more than a thousand. There was a 24-hour curfew in Punjab. Sikh extremists surfaced all over India and the world - attacking Amritsar, Rajasthan, Bombay, New Delhi, Vancouver and other places. Security was stepped up in Indian missions in the US, Canada, Britain, West Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark, where there are significant Sikh populations. Then the Akali Dal Party announced that it would begin to block grain shipments to the rest of India from Punjab, thereby cutting of 65% of the nation's crucial grain reserves and causing widespread famine.
Three days before the attack, Indira Gandhi appealed to the Sikhs to end their agitation. She had agreed to giving them religious autonomy and to amend the constitution to distinguish Sikhs from Hindus but if she gave in to the demand for political autonomy, there would be a Hindu backlash.
So government troops stormed the Golden Temple. Many were killed. Sikh bodyguards assassinated the Prime Minster. Hindus retaliated by brutally murdering the Sikh. One favourite pastime of most Indian people is to drench others in oil and set them on fire. Put tires around their neck and set them on fire. Lock them in their houses and set them on fire.
So now they have the Nanavati Report. Which is an investigation into the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984. 21 years ago. It took the government 21 years to come up with an investigation report for the targeted murder of two thousand people in the nation's capital. The commission that produced this report is the 9th such commission to probe the 1984 riots and was set up in 1999.
21 years have passed. That's a lifetime some never had. Somebody must have turned that crowd into a mob. And they couldn't find them in 21 years?
So Union Minister Jagdish Tytler and Congress parliamentarian Sajjan Kumar are among those named in the GT Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots for instigating mobs to avenge then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. However, the Government has let all Congress leaders off the hook. Because the commission report says there is a high probablity that Tytler and others had a hand in the riots and the Government says that it cannot prosecute on the basis of probablity alone.
The others named in the report were Lieutenant Governor PG Gavai, the then police commissioner SC Tandon and Congress MP Dharam Dass Shastri. Shastri died somewhere along the way these past 21 years. The Government will not take action on the others.
So, in conclusion, the commission's efforts came to nothing and the Government's action taken report was totally useless.
Waiting 21 years for justice. Is there a statute of limitations on pain?
