Big Blue Brainstorm

The collective wisdom of crowds depends on your crowd, and IBM has one of the sharpest crowds around. CEO Samuel J. Palmisano knows this, and he wants to leverage it. He is pulling people together for the online equivalent of a town meeting. His hope: The opinions of some 100,000 minds will lead to catalytic innovations so powerful they will transform industries, alter human behavior, and lead to new businesses for IBM. He calls the project an Innovation Jam.

I'd be VERY interested to see how this turns out.

Today is my last day at the Hive

And I'm strangely not unhappy. Probably because I don't necessarily agree with their operating philosophy - "The people who are responsible are not going to execute and the ones who are going to execute are not the ones who are responsible. Otherwise, the various pieces will be fractured."

Also, can I just say, asking someone how much money did you make at the gambling tables in Vegas is very crass and extremely ugly American. Stop doing it. Once is forgivable but if you do it everytime you see someone, they lose all respect for you. Gambling is not a game, it's an personal art. And one's personal artistic talents should not be questioned.

I've been working on a help document for about 2 weeks now. Everytime I start, I start getting sleepy. Think I'll finish it today?

I've twisted my blasted ankle again

I'm going to throw these bloody useless sandals. Here's a tip - don't wear footwear without adequate support.

What is the point of Twizzlers anyway?

The PM just walked up to me with a Twizzler and said, "Bark like a seal". So I started singing Kiss from a Rose. He left the entire packet and ran away.

My tech lead writes very cryptic emails

* Pre-live event: CRM => CMS
* During live event: CMS only [for existing data]
* Post-live event: CMS => CRM

I just spent $150 on new clothes

And for those of you that know me, you know why this is significant.

It's Saturday night

And I'm at home. Watching Blade for the 18th time. Bored.

Dude, I so need to make new friends.

Wouldn't you like a levitating globe?

I know Resh would.

Pushing the new frontier

So like I'm sure you know about Virgin Comics. It's a comic book company owned by Branson. This is the new face of desi comics. Not your average Amar Chitra Katha. Leading comics creators include John Woo, Nicolas Cage, Guy Ritchie, Garth Ennis, Alex Ross, Shekhar Kapur, Deepak Chopra, Gotham Chopra and Samit Basu. I can't wait! Check out Issue #0.

Everybody should go to Vegas

At least once a year. It's splendid.

So like, 4 days of work to go and then I'm off till skool starts post Labor Day. Also, the number of emails in the inbox is getting outrageous so I simply must take care of this today.

Khan is off to Yale to meet long lost Badal. I shall listen to Pink Floyd now.

Miami Vice not so nice

I had a nice long post about how Miami Vice sucked and I lost the will to live for about 3 hours after I saw the movie (until of course I remembered that there are egg rolls in this world) and how Michael Mann must have been smoking the good stuff and how I thought the cameramen were rejects from a flop reality television show and that I needed to rent Heat and Collateral and Insider and mourn the loss of Mann's directive abilities. But Blogger ate it all. But still, you get the idea.

If this doesn't put CBS high on your list, I don't know what will

I still really do want to work for le Cirque du Soleil

Yesterday was nice. 6 more people have arrived. Just the sort of blithering idiots (Mr. and Mrs. BI with their son and his BI wife and their BI kid and cousin) you don't want around you. But still, they are RK's friends and must be tolerated.

After a leisurely nosh at breakfast at Cafe Bellagio by the Conservatory (seared pepper crusted ahi tuna on baby spinach and white bean ragout - quite mediocre, badly salted), I spent most of the day working. Which may sound like a drag but not with this view. Took a break to take the limo out to get kheema and zeera aloo with parathas from Gandhi and then back to writing damn specification documents. I'm tired of those. Any blithering idiot with half a brain can do those. Well maybe not this current crew.

Saw David Copperfield. Same show, same tricks as last time. He still does that funny thing with his unblinking eyes staring into the camera. Bloody good-looking chap too. His show is a little too theatrical for my taste but nice nonetheless. Those round tables are uncomfortable though.

And of course, we spent the entire evening and most of the night afterwards putting forth our own opinions on how the tricks were done. That gets old real fast. Would be nice to just enjoy a magic show.

A late night and a little lie in and it was back to damn specification documents at 7 this morning. Lovely sunrise over the mountains with the shadows of clouds falling on crags, slowly creeping up to the Strip, illuminating the blueness of the Bellagio fountain pond. Brilliant. Nothing like it.

Breakfast at the Cafe again (brioche french toast with orange butter, buttermilk pancakes with vanilla icecream) and back to work. Mrs. RK landed in today so that was nice. One more person has also arrived. The party is now 13 people. Two more are expected on Friday and one more on Sunday.

So like, I don't know if you've seen O but you simply must. It's spectacular. It's changed a little since the last time I saw it but it is still breathtaking. I also don't think it's physically possible to bend those sorts of ways like the contortionists in the show. I also wish I could dive like that. My God the hours of back-breaking practice that must go into that show. And they play 10 shows a week. Deserve a standing ovation just for that.

Have just had to go downstairs to the VIP Lounge to get Mrs. Blithering Idiot up to the suite since she does not have a key card to access the super fast (and I do mean fast) lifts to the VIP floor. Waited 5 minutes which is about 5 minutes more than I wanted to and then rang the room only to be told that she had already arrived. Stupid people were just going to let me wait until I was fed up. Yes, I know I would have eventually figured it out but still. It's not courteous to keep people waiting. Stupid idiots.

Can you tell I don't like them? Stupid incompetent mindless fucks.

I'm actually not even in a bad mood, mind you.

Now Mr. and Mrs. BI and RK and Pops are hanging out in the living room, snorting whiskey (except for Mrs. BI of course 'cuz women, especially Indian women, don't drink whiskey I was told. I wanted to laugh at that. Derisively. Out loud too. But I didn't. I just made myself a whiskey and tottled off to the bedroom under pretext of work. Stupid morons are now talking very loudly and disturbing the peace. Should open the window and throw them 32 floors to their death. That'll teach 'em.

Yes, ok, I know, I'll stop.

In fact, I'm sleepy so I'll head to bed. Maybe I'll dream about running away to join the circus :)

Neela aasmaan so gaya

So like, yes, I know its been a while but I've been busy with the 'rents. They're in town you know. Lettuce begin from the beginning...

So after having Black Cobra's car broken into and then my purse stolen at Infusions bloody Tea Spa on Brighton Ave., we decided to pick ourselves up and drive to Niagara Falls on the weekend. Pleasant enough drive with Pops very excited about the prospect of eating fast food from chain restaurants along the way. So with a car full of eager participants and the requisite bag of food, off we went. Saw the Falls. Oohed and aahed appropriately and then off we went to meet Pops's long lost cousin/nephew (the relationship is still indeterminate). Stayed one very traumatic night at their place (sleeping on hard floor in freezing room with mine hosts yelling at each other all night - don't ask) we hit the road again and Pops and I were dropped off in Boston while the two docs pushed off to NYC.

Now, let's talk about these Falls here for a minute. I don't know if you've seen them but if you have you'll know what I mean and if you haven't, shame on you. From afar you can see the clear crystal waters merrily plodding along a shallow-bed river, picking up momentum, the kinetic energy hurtling what looks like sheets of pure ice off a mini cliff. I won't give you the statistics because you can look 'em up yourself but I will tell you that no number of stats and pictures do it justice. It's sheer poetry. The water is so clear that you can see the green moss underneath on the river bed and the air is so crisp that it makes you want to dive right into the icy green-tinted wonderfulness of it all. Don't believe me? Here, see pictures. Er, only problem is that the pictures are on a disc at home in Boston and I'm in Vegas. I'll post them when I get back.

So then after a couple of days in Boston, Pops went back to Dubai. He missed us so much that he decided to come back after a week as a surprise to the docs. And surprised they were. Well, Mum was more suspicious but it all went over well. Carefully orchestrated meeting of flights (his from Dubai and mine from Boston) at JFK and a taxi ride home met us with screams and hugs of delight. Nothing better than to spring surprises on Black Cobra, bless her. And the next day, here we are in Vegas with RK.

Staying at the Bellagio in our regular suite on the 32nd (last time we were on the 35th but the dip in 3 floors does nothing for the magnificient view). Pops threw a hissy fit on the plane because I wouldn't play cards with him but opted to work instead (apparently I'm still his little entertainment monkey and must dance on command). He got out of that soon enough after we pumped him full of airplane pretzels and Coca Cola. Bags were out fairly quickly and into the waiting limo we went (manned by a lovely woman with immense bag carrying capacity). A short drive later, and into the Bellagio's VIP Services we are, having a snack (chocolate covered strawberries, cheese sticks and assorted dried fruit) and checking in. Had a chat and a cheese plate up in the room and down we went to give Mum the grand tour. The Conservatory this time is done up showing major American pieces of culture and history with absolutely lovely flowers. This is why I like the Bellagio better than any other hotel on the strip - the flowers. Lovely exotic orchids, plain pretty petunias, tiny little roses. Very beautiful.

A few hours of gambling and into the limo to Gandhi for dinner we go. Food was nice, much better than Gaylord at the Rio. Back to the room for a king's view of the dancing fountains. Spent the evening working and gaping at the truly magnificient view and then as was tired, hit the sack early.

Still on East Coast time so was up by 3 as usual. Lazed around in bed until I couldn't anymore. Did the usual morning chores - ironing people's clothes, scheduling laundry pick-up and making reservations for the day. Now I shall shower and head down to the excellent Spa and Salon for my facialpedicurehaircut. Mum and Pops are already down at the tables, gambling away. RK is asleep since he was up at 3 as well only he decided to hit the tables instead of lazing about.

Alright luvvies, as comfy as this bathrobe is, I must to the Spa.

Oh, and the reason this post is titled as it is is because Pops put that song on repeat on the iPod and I'm too lazy to get up and change it.