I am All Ears

Had to get one of these. Not because they are noise cancelling headphones and all that - just because they are headphones. I have tried and tried, but for some reason the left earplug in any earplugs that I have had just would not sit in my left ear for long - It always keeps falling out.

Misery Loves Company

I spoke with a good friend after so many days. He is under a lot of pressure these days - he has his thesis proposal due and has to take his PhD qualifying exam by the end of spring. Well, he was just a little frustrated, and was wondering as to why life becomes more complicated and stressful with time. He says that it should be just the opposite. With education and experience, life should be a lot more nicer, easier, comfortable, and a lot less painful. But that is not the case. I did not disagree with him because each day brings a different kind of trauma. Sometimes I feel that every time I am involved in something, I am being tested. Everything is a challenge, and the misery that comes with those challenges just does not stop!

So, my childhood dream (well, it's not just mine) of having a huge mansion and an infinite number of cars (like all the sheikhs have) and an endless supply of money - would it ever come true? What about a random lawyer calling me up and telling me that a distant uncle or aunt just died and left me tons and tons of money - would that ever happen? Will I ever win a lottery? Will I marry the daughter of a business tycoon who would request me to take care of his business because it's becoming a little too much for him to handle or that he has seen it all and now wants to go on top of a mountain to medidate?

Well, all these questions have one common answer ---- NO.

My past experiences say that I will always have to slog like a donkey. I will always be the average Joe. I will spend my entire life dealing with family issues, and my future wife would also be from a middle class family, and we would both work our entire lives to make ends meet, to give our children good education, and blah blah blah.

I know how good my bad luck is. I rest my case, your honor.

Yay!!

I don't know if you know this already, but my Philips MCM530 music system has the ability to connect to my computer. I was able to connect it to my laptop just fine when I first bought it, but after a few months I started having problems with it. My music system would not connect to my laptop anymore.

However, things changed just a few minutes ago. I downloaded the software/drivers and decided to give it a shot once again, and voila! it worked - without any glitch whatsoever!

When the "USB" LED on the system stayed steady, I was thrilled (when there is a problem, it would either not light up at all or would blink).

The USB port on my computer seems to be working just fine.

After successfully establishing a connection, this is what I saw/see now on the little screen on my music system:

And I call this the "power house". It lets me control all the songs playing on my computer. I can play/pause/stop/rewind/forward and change tracks on my computer without having to touch the keyboard! With this in my hand, I can control my playlist even when I am in bed :):

By the way, I can also connect my MP3 player to the music system through the AUX ports at the back (just FYI!!).

And finally, this is what the entire setup looks like:

Crazy, innit?? :)

Here's a demo:

View From My Room

Shadow

That's me in the corner...that's me in the spot..light..

Take The Back Seat, Will You?

I don't know how I forgot to blog about this!

When I was in Baltimore I fell in love with this family run Indian restaurant that cooked awesome food! Their food was pretty cheap, considering the fact that they were based in a big city in the US. I must tell you that it was not a big restaurant, and it was not really set up like a typical restaurant, you know, lighting, ambience and all that jazz. Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure:

You see what I mean? It's pretty small - nice, and clean though. They have a few tables for those of us who would want to sit and eat there. But mostly people get their stuff packed.

However, the one thing that made me laugh non stop ( and my sister too) is something that you would just not expect to see inside a restaurant. It was in the "waiting area", and it was supposed to make your bum comfortable while you waited to get your stuff. See "it" for yourself:

Lol! Did you see that? It's a fucking back seat of a car!! Here, take a closer look:

Now why in the world would you want to "install" a car seat in your restaurant? Of course, you can always say "cost cutting", but hell, why would an Indian restaurant cut costs when it's running so well and making big bucks? Well, one thing I know is that Indian restaurants take their customers for granted. They know that their customers crave Indian food, and that they really don't give a flying fuck about the ambience and all that shit and crap.

Hence, the exploitation.

Hello Sexy!

I was on buy.com today, looking at some MP3 players that they have on great discounts. They have the President' s day sale. Well, it seems that there was a very high volume of traffic. Now, you know how when there is an error the website would show a general error page and say that there has been a problem and that you should wait for some time and all that jazz? Buy.com did the same thing, except that they had a very hot looking model on the error page. See it for yourself:

Now, somebody please explain this to me. I am totally stumped. If buy.com were a fashion website, it would have made more sense, but why would that website have a hot/sexy /cute/beautiful/whatever woman on its error page? Why do I get this feeling that this error page itself is an error? Is this a faux pas? Or a prank played by one of the horny programmers? Or a President's day joke?

What is it?

I upgraded my blog template and I hate it.

Motivation, Will You?

Okay, just put my dirty clothes in the washing machine.

So I was walking to the library yesterday when I saw this weird thing that is obviously a part of 1st National Bank's employee motivation program or whatever. Here, let me show you the picture first. Sorry about the bad quality, I took it with my camera phone.

It says "1st Class Service. Reserved for Employee of the Month".

Now that got me thinking. Is motivation that cheap? I mean, would an employee be motivated enought to meet his objectives or targets just to get a parking spot for himself/herself? Would I really be excited if my boss tells me that I will get my own parking spot if I perform well, or outperform others? Ummmmmm...I don't think so. On the other hand, would I be excited if my boss tells me that I will get a raise, a bonus, or perhaps a paid vacation if I perform well, or outperform others? Yes. Definitely.

And the other thing that came to my mind was that a reward should give you an advantage, not a disadvantage for God's sake. The next picture does not tell you much about the spot but let me tell you that the "reserved for employee of the month" spot is the farthest from the office entrance!

Now come on you guys, let some common sense prevail. Wouldn't the employee of the month want their car to be parked as close to the door as possible so that they could get in and get out easily, without having to walk so much in the freezing cold (now that's a real privelege, innit?)? Don't punish that guy for being smart and hard working. And seriously, in this case, no one would want to be the employee of the month - especially if they have to walk 200 feet to get into the office building when it's -25 degrees outside.

What do you think? Ha ha.

Details

Alright. So the Internet is up and running.

My friend is a father now. His daughter's name is Mayra - Mom and Dad basically combined their own names to come up with this one. So from now on, little Mayra can technically and officially call me uncle. Not that I like it, but it's okay. The next time I meet her though, I will tell her not to call me uncle.

The job's good so far. I have got very cool colleagues at my work place.

Iowa State is huge. You can never tell where the campus starts and where it ends. And the campus has some beautiful buildings. The place where I work is not in the main campus area, which basically means that reaching there is not really easy. Not that it's difficult, but I have to change buses to reach the College of Vet Med, and to do that I have to wait for 10 minutes everyday at Lincoln and Beach out in this freaking cold.

Yeah, I have been watching a lot of movies. I became a member of the Ames Public Library - not to read books, but to get DVDs and CDs. Just so you know, they also have music CDs, which I think is pretty cool, and their collection is not too bad either.

And of course, no soda. I do have a craving for it, but somehow I stop myself from buying that evil drink. But I have started drinking beer big time. Well, not big time, but during weekends. It's good fun. All bad things are fun.

I was in Beardshear Hall a few days ago, and I saw the strangest looking urinals in the restroom.

Now here's the thing. Any Indian would think that this is an "Indian Commode". But the only thing that would confuse them is the height of these "commodes". Well, honestly, that is what happened with me. When these urinals came in my line of vision, I said to myself, "Hey, Indian commode!". But after paying attention to it's height I realized that it's a urinal. And peeing in these urinals is way too awkward.

I bought the Xbox 360. Thank you, thank you.

And I played the most amazing game on it - GRAW2. And was disappointed. Because..I finished the single player game in less than 10 hours! Can you believe it? Man, video games are supposed to keep you busy for days, and even months. So not fair.

And last but not the least, I live near Downtown Ames, which has almost everything you could ask for. The biggest advantage is a grocery store just a few steps away. Now I can (and I have) get rid of my weekly mandatory trip to Wal-Mart. *awesome*.

It's sunday night and I have not done my laundry yet. Got to do it ASAP.

Whew!
The Internet in my apartment has still not been activated, and I have been dying to blog about so many things in life. So I decided to use my phone to do the needful, and as I type on the tiny little keyboard on my Treo, I get the feeling that it would not be a very pleasant experience (my thumbs hurt already).
I have changed my mind. I am going to be not at all descriptive, and would keep the typing to the minimal. But you should be expecting details about the following things in the near future:

-My friend recently became a father, and I became an uncle *applause*.
-The job's good so far.
-Iowa state university is huge.
-I have been watching a lot of movies lately.
-I proudly announce that I have not had soda since the last so many days. It's not healthy they say. So I drink only water.And beer.
-I saw some strangely shaped toilets in Beardshear Hall (got pictures,will post).
-I bought the 360.
-Finished GRAW2. In a few hours. Very disapppinted.
-I live near the downtown. Loving it!

Don't Be A Bad Boy!

Have you ever realized how rude and blunt some of your near and dear ones can be? Sometimes people dont realize that the way they talk and their "tone" can really make things worse - even if what they are saying is not a big deal. There is always a polite way of saying something, and if you cannot be polite - you can say it in a funny way so that the person at the receiving end does not feel disgusted and hurt.