the pyramid game

about a month back, a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in part-time business. he didn't go into any details but just asked me to go with him for a "business meeting" that night. I have heard stories about Amway before, so I kinda knew where I'm being led to. the only difference being that this wasn't Amway, but Quixtar. later I learnt that quixtar is a sister concern of amway.
the meeting took place somewhere in LA in a 3 start hotel, and all the people were dressed up in formals .... they were wearing suits! I don't even have a tie, so didn't bother much.
apparently a guy had come from NY to deliver a lecture on quixtar. he bragged about as to how he became a millionaire in just 5 yrs, never works any more, how he has helped lots of people and society(?) .......

for starters, this is what you do
1. pay $250 and become a member
2. start purchasing merchandise from their website. they have all the crap there
3. refer more people

for every dollar spent directly by you, and indirectly (spent by the people whom you have referred), you get some commission. obviously one can't spend a million bucks, so you refer more and more people, count on them to refer more and so on. its like a pyramid and if you are lucky enuf to sit at the top of a big one, you may make some bucks.

but I'm telling you, this is not going to happen unless lots of people are stupid enough to buy basically everything from tooth-paste to vitamin tablets from their website. my poor friend has committed himself and now he is buying everything from it, believing that one day he will become a millionaire. and you have to be really aggressive to get more people into it. these guys are super-aggressive, and on being so they lose all sorts of values :(
unfortunately lots of grad students are blindly joining this game.

why I went there, I was expecting some free food, they disappointed me :)

Super Computers

was reading an article on rediff about IBM's latest super computer, Blue Gene/L. claimed to be the fastest, its speed is in the order of 36 teraflops. thats 36 trillion calculation per sec, something really amazing.
I have previously worked on a super computer cluster, Blue Horizon, remotely ofcourse. it was located at the San Diego Super Computing Center, also called SDSC. this was for a course work while at UCSB. Blue Horizon's peak performance was about 1.7 teraflops. it was a mind blowing speed.... what took more than 10 mins on our local linux cluster, about 10-15 2Ghz machines, took less than a sec on the blue horizon. I could only imagine how much faster this new one could be :)
by the way, its not that hard to get an access to some super computers meant for academic purposes. you just need a project that justifies the use of massive computing power.

A Wager

as soon as I mentioned to a colleague of mine that I will be going to India this november, he started laughing mischeavously. and then he asked if I had already started looking for apartments. just when I thought that the summer heat had done something to his brain, he asked if I already knew the girl. then I understood where he was driving at and told him that I'm not going to India to get married. he accepted that I wasn't going on the intention of getting married, but I will still get married. when I asked him if he was some sort of an astrologer, he said that his predictions are based on "past experiences". apparently his wife had bet with her friend that an Indian colleague who went to homeland for vacation would not get married, but subsequently lost the bet. this was worth a wager for them as the guy never saw the girl nor knew that he is gonna get married even a month before :)
actually now I'm hearing about more such cases and more people are asking me if I'll get married during this trip .... and I never deny, but just negotiate a wager with them and they happily promised me a dinner, if I come back still single :)

magazine mania

this is getting to a lot of people. couple of reasons, peer pressure and the amazing deals for a yrs subscription of these magazines. what used to be like $100/yr for any magazine has now boiled down to less than $10/yr. a few would be surprised to know that 'Wired' subscription is just $5/yr. and other equally good magazines, like business week, time, economist, fortune, are all under $20/yr. some sites even carry a multi-magazine deal, you can choose some N number of these for a specified rate (a lot of 'em have 5 for $20/yr). but little do we realize how much time we are gonna spend reading 'em. I subscribed to wired and business week, and I find it difficult to read the juicy articles on all issues. we needn't finish up from cover-cover, but atleast we should read the cover stories.
a lot of my friends have subscribed to more than one magazine. just like in my case, their initial enthusiasm waned away after the first few months :)

all work and no play

thats what a typical indian mentality is. we work hard to get good scores in high school, so that we can get into a good degree program. and as soon as we get into one, we start thinking about the next step. well it sounds good to many people, but when you do it, it really sucks. and all the while we just concentrate on the theory part..... hands on experience is just a joke. and then we do manage to get into a good job at around 24, and most of us would have even got our masters degree by then. yeah its all still good, but looking around I gather that I have missed out a lot on the fun part.
most of us enter the job market only after a masters degree, as is the case with me too. a lot of stuff that I did while at grad school never made any sense to me. all those complicated communication models were nothing more than nightmares to me. but now at work, all those things are making more sense. too late, had I known then, I would have easily overwhelmed all those courses, without putting those long hrs at the study hall and library.
I think it definitely helps to get some hands on experience, I mean some real stuff, before committing towards a masters degree. I really like the way people deal this here, many opt for a grad school only after about 5 yrs of experience. some of my course mates at UCSB were in their late 30's.
1 or 2 yrs of experience in a totally different field will do no good either, some indians do that too :)

Sir, Post

its been ages since I heard the words 'sir, post'. postment, sometimes postwomen, in India, utter these words when you have a letter/parcel. unlike here, most of the letters we receive in india is from a friend or a relative, and there is definitely a thrill in rushing to get it. needless to say, the excitement in reading the letter first, aahhh..... I miss those days.
in the past 4 yrs I have received exactly 3 letters, all from my mom. she sends me the stuff for 'avani avittam' every yr. but without fail she does attach a letter, and I cherish reading it.
though emails and IMs have taken over, I still consider a written letter to be the most dearest communication of all. it has life in it.

An Inspiring Book

I've read before some inspiring essays and biographies, but nothing like 'The Alchemist'. this is an international best seller, written by Paulo Coelho. a very inspiring and influential novel. it's basically about how focussed one should be while trying to realize his/her dreams, and the various obstacles along the path.
the plot is extremely interesting and set as a journey of a young boy called santiago. the narration is very vivid and literally takes us to the spanish country side and the great sahara desert. I finsihed it almost in one read.
its a must read for everyone and no wonder the book has already sold more than 20 million copies, and has been translated into 56 languages.
my sweet sister presented me this book on my birthday, probably the best I've got so far.

very funny

read this article on cnn. how funny...... does it require the collective thinking of all the intelligence heads to analyze and find that the situation in Iraq could get worser and may even even lead to a civil unrest? even a kid could predict that. what we need now is not to find the obvious, but a solution.
by the way CNN is US govt's mouthpiece, wonder when they are going to change. I read it just to know how people are getting cheated.

cool + cool = chill

one of my friends has an iPod. the device is so cool. its user interface is probably the best I've ever seen. and the minipods are even more sexier. I'm thinking of buying one, but the $300 price tag is holding me back a bit though :) Apple definitely beats out everybody when it comes to product aesthetics. they have also invested a lot of money in running factory direct stores everywhere. if you spot any apple store, take time and go in, its worth the visit even if you don't buy anything.
of late I've been using gmail a lot, and man, its so cool too. i like the way it organizes conversations. speaking of being cool, google had set the standard for web searches and delivery. and now its gmail.
As a consumer, I'm just wondering how it'd be if these to companies join hands to deliver some cool products. I'm sure none would be able to scale the combined peak :)

Retirement

sounds a bit odd to discuss it here, but a lot of people are seriously preparing themselves for the inevitable, even though they are in their mid 20's. a friend of mine says that the household income has to be atleast $100K/yr (from a very early age) to make sure the parents have a safe retirement and the kids get education in a decent school. thats really scary. so far I was under the assumption that 70-80K per yr was more than enough.
well lets see, education costs have risen up by more than 30% over the last yr alone. at UCSB, where I got my MS, the fee per quarter for a state resident is about $4000....... which means a 4 yr education will roughly cost around $50K for one kid alone. and thats just the fees. to have that kinda money, on top of the home mortgage payments and retirement savings ........ I wonder how people manage.
better start planning, if one even thinks of settling here for a long term.
this only makes me question the pricing structure in the US. more on that later.

crazy ideas

past 6 weekends have been really hectic. all the driving took a toll on my body and mind. finally here is a weekend that I'm not going anywhere and I'm enjoying it. a friend of mine is coming to visit me in the evening. he just called me and proposed a crazy idea - "lets go to vegas and get back in the morning". it was really tempting and I almost said a yes. but good sense prevailed and I said no.
this reminds me of a crazy thing me and this guy did 2 yrs back. he came to my place and we were supposed to go for lunch. while thinking where to go, I casually mentioned that a south indian place in SF bay area (Saravana Bhavan) is really good and authentic too, I had been to that place just a week back. then we just stared at each other, and the next moment we were driving to bay area. beleive me, we started at 1 pm, reached the place at 5:30 pm, had lunch/dinner, and started our return around 8 pm. we were back in Santa Barbara around 12:30 am. in all we drove more than 650 miles in that single day alone :)
I still would like to do something like that, but not this weekend please :)

the season has started

finally football (american football, NFL) season has started. after months of dullness, the excitement is going to begin in less than 2 hrs from now. and what a way to start, the best offense takes on the best defense, yup its Colts Vs Pats today ..... and I'm rooting for the Colts. Pats might win, but they are boring.
its too early to predict, but my favorites are the colts, the packers (for favre), and always the raiders (for their rude behavior :))
and by the end of oct NBA season would have begun, wow !!!!! the next 8 months I'm gonna be busy :)

this whole sports season is like a home coming for me every yr. while I miss them dearly every summer, I happily lead my life with 'em for the remainder of the yr :)

Its Raining :)

aaaahhhh atlast its raining here in valencia, CA. this place is more or less a desert. being very close to Los Angeles (30 miles) is its only distinction. Its been exactly a yr since I moved here, and I don't remember when it rained before.
a lot of my friends were shocked when I told them I loved seattle and is my dream destination. they would't be so surprised if they had lived in valencia :)

Mt. Shasta

as planned earlier, 6 of us went to Mt. Shasta this weekend. the trip was eventful as it was a reunion of sorts for all of us after a long time. Shasta is about 650 miles from my place, we spent most of the time driving. the rental SUV was big enuf to have a small bedroom space in the back, we all took turns to sleep there :)
coming to Mt.Shasta itself, it wasn't as scenic as I expected it to be. the place is defly greener than mine, but again not to my expectations. Maybe its more scenic during winter, as the whole mountain would be covered up with snow. Shasta lake was good, its apparently the second largest in the US. we rented a ski boat and cruised at top speed ... first time that I drove a proper motorized boad with a steering wheel.
we also spent a day in San Francisco downtown, did all the standard tourist stuff. SF never bores me, each time I'm as enthusiastic as it were my first.
next 2 weekends I'm gonna stay home and catch up with friends and relatives on the phone :) its been a while since I slept peacefully during the weekends.

me proposes God disposes

this weekend is a long weekend and a few of my friends are flying in today. the first one, who arrived around 11 am, was supposed to pick the rental car and drive to my place. I thought it'd be a convenient arrangement as I needn't drive to the airport in the middle of a working day.
as usual, everything went upside down. my buddy forgot to renew his license, which expired just 2 days back, and the car rental company won't rent him a car. so I drove down to the airport to pick him up. when I was signing the papers, I casually asked if an Indian drivers license could be accepted. surprisingly they did, and lo..... my dude was driving back home, as per the original plan. only difference being that I went to the airport too :)

atleast turned out to be a good blog material :)

"dismissed with prejudice"

thats what happened to the Kobe Bryant case. meaning he cannot be tried for the same case ever again. kinda like double jeopardy.
I knew this is gonna happen right when the accuser filed a civil suit, even before the criminal suit went for trial. this case was very similar to the famous Mike Tyson rape case, only difference being that Tyson was convicted. I guess Kobe's better image helped him a lot to weaken the case. money might have also played a big role, though as of now we don't know about it.
as a fan of the lakers, I'm really excited and looking forward to see Kobe in action, minus shaq. it would have been really disappointing to see the league's most talented and gifted player behind the bars. I just hope that from now on he just sticks to his wife, who by the way is absolutely gorgeous :)

the mega serial

Sep 1st, its exactly 4 yrs since I left India. and it was the first time I'm leaving my family too. a bunch of relatives came to the international airport at chennai to see me off (it was my first flight experience too :)). and when the time came, we got very emotional and all of us were in tears. my dad was particularly inconsolable.
as soon as I went thru the security gate, all the people left, as they had nothing else to do. and suddenly I was feeling alone and I hated it. when all the security and immigration formalities were over, there was still 30 mins left for boarding. I spotted a public phone (free for local use), picked it up and called my uncle's place, my parents were staying at theirs. when my dad was on the other end, I stared off something like "I miss you guys......", and my dad goes, "hold on son, chiiti (a tamil mega serial played every night on sun-tv) is on the tv...here talk to ur mom, I'll be right back". I was speechless. such is the power of mega serial in India.
but when the show was over, he came back and spoke with me even more emotionally :)