Addicted to facebook !

Just realised that I am literally addicted to facebook. First thing I do after sitting in front of the website is check facebook !

I’m back

I have resumed writing blog after a longggggg break. .. Things changed pretty dramatically from the time I stopped writing my blog in March.

I changed my job and now work at a place where there’s no travelling . So there would be no more of my travelling entries . I miss that a lot but cant really complain.

From May to July, I had my wife’s parents at my place and then from August to September  end, I had my parents and grandparents visiting me.  So I was totally busy.

Now I am back to my routine…and hence back starting my job. My Year 2009 was pretty bad right from the outset…so I would be no longer updating my post on Year 2009 ..

Ciao…

Google does it again !! :)

I simply love Google ..They have continued to launch their ***VERY** interesting ideas on APRIL 1st.

This time its GOOGLE AUTOPILOT and the CADIE.

Read more here

Hats off

May be they should have MIND READER plug-in to enhance the automatic responses

Update :: I just checked the page on Google Chrome 3D ..I love it. I am just thinking of a list of websites that I would surely watch in 3D. LOL …Any guesses ?

Credit Crisis Explained

Today while browsing Youtube videos , I found these videos. These give a good overview of what happened with the finance industry and how we got into this mess.

Enjoy !!

Year 2009 !!

Every new year, we look back at the year just passed and wonder how did the year go…good or bad. Most of the times we just think of major issues/incidents that took place and tend to overlook the smaller things.

It happens to me always that I just think of key events that took place. Hence I decided to capture some of events as they unfold in this year including the smaller things .Lets see how 2009 shapes up for me..

January : I always consider January to be the luckiest month, just because I have birthday in January and now I also  have my wedding anniversary. This year though the start of the year was not so good .  On January 1st, the first thing that i noticed in the morning was a BIG DENT in the brand new car that too in a parking lot of a Vegas hotel. So the first morning of new year was not at all good for me. In the first week , I also lost my grandfather , so i had a terrible start to new year.

Other than that the overall month was Ok.  I had  week long travel to Phoenix, Arizona for one of my meetings.  We had good time on both my anniversary and birthday.

Also the new years resolutions were broken within fifteen days.  I had decided to stay away from meat as long as possible, however I broke that resolution by eating a nice Steak in Pheonix.  I still have another resolution for the year though..to lose weight. Lets see if I actually make it by the end of the year.

February : Half of my February, I spent in San Antonio. I had a two week long meeting there.  Even on Valentine’s Day I was not home . However I spent that weekend in Dallas meeting my old friends. It was good that I went to Dallas, else I would have bored to death in San Antonio over the weekend. Visiting dallas, revived the old memories of the school days.  I also visited the campus for the feel good factor .

On the other side, the economic recession in the country took its toll on the free food in our office. We were notified that no longer we would be served the free food but it would be subsidized (which is not bad.) I definitely prefer to have a job than free food

We also planned and booked tickets for my parents-in-law’s upcoming trip.

March : ……..will update at the end of the month.

A fresh start !!

After being lazy for more than two months now..I decided to restart blogging. Well nothing has changed since i stopped writing. I am still traveling and still going to new places.
Hopefully this time I am able to update the blog often.

I am just finishing off a two week long 3GPP meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The city is good for a visit for a day or two but for 10 days..mannnn its very boring !!
Luckily for me I was able to drive to Dallas for the weekend and meet up some old friends. Thus at least i was not bored to death in San Antonio like few of my colleagues from the meeting.
But still 10 days of meeting with working hours from 8.30 am to 10.00 pm literally sucks

Beautiful Budapest !

Dates : 17th to 22nd August,2008
Hotel Sofitel Budapest Maria Dorottya

Budapest was my first destination for my two week long meetings in August. Located on banks of river Danube, Budapest is indeed a very beautiful city. I was in love with the city right away.  After a longhaul from SFO to Budapest, I reached here on Sunday evening. After checking into the hotel, i just went for a walk across the famous bridge on Danube. There was some kind of fair on the bridge with people just chilling out. there was music, food, plenty of beer and lots of liveliness in the place. The atmosphere was just rocking.

After a short walk, I along with couple of colleagues from the meeting, went to a Hungarian restaurant.  Restaurants with patio style dining, common of all europe, just add to the liveliness of the place.

For the whole week i was stuck in the long meetings. This time the meetings lasted from 8AM to almost 9.30PM giving no time to even see the sun . But on Wednesday we finished early mainly to enjoy the Hungarian National Festival.  August 20th was some kind of national holiday in hungary. People gathered out on the banks of Danube to enjoy. There was air show / air race, some other musical events throughout the day. At night, they had a spectacular fireshow on the main bridge. I have not seen a fireshow like this in my life. it was truly amazing.

On friday evening, i did a mini sightseeing tour of budapest. Just walked along Danube river, went to the top of the castle. I also wanted to try the “public baths”, one of the major attractions in Budapest, These baths are some kind of spas and they have a lot of historical significance.  But i didn’t have swimming costume with me too bad i could not try it.

I had a flight early morning out of Budapest going to Nice, France.

PS:: this is very hastily written blog post. i will post some pics soon.

Aaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhh !!

My blackberry was acting weird on me so I went to my IT-Helpdesk at the office to get it fixed. They reflashed the OS but in the process deleted all the google applications on my blackberry . Moreover they installed a new policy by which I cannot install them back at all. I lost google maps/google talk/gmail/brixbreaker and lots of applications on my phone which i used regularly

I literally feel helpless without all these apps. Toooo bad i cannot have them back !!

GM diet !! : It worked atleast for me :)

Last week I decided to follow a diet program and try to reduce some of my unwanted weight. After talking to few friends who went through similar diet programs, I decided on the GM diet. (More information about the diet program can be found here).

Day 1: Monday: Day of fruits only.
My day started with eating a bowl of watermelons and cantaloupes at the office. During lunch time I just picked couple of plums from the office cafeteria. By afternoon, I already started feeling hungry and bit weak but I decided to hang on. I had an apple and a pear in the afternoon and then felt a bit better. After going home from office, I had 2 bowls of  the “Wonder Soup” described in the program. I was feeling so weak by the end of the day but somehow manage to hold on.

Day 2: Tuesday : Day of vegetables only
Day 2 was not that bad I started my day with a baked potato for breakfast. For lunch I had a plate full of salad.  I did not feel as tired and weak as Day 1.  For dinner i ate some boiled vegetables.  I checked my weight today and to my surprise it was 5 pound less than what i started with. LOL (I think the scale must be bad)

Day 3: Wednesday : Day of fruits + vegetables
On this day I had a bowl of watermelons for breakfast. For lunch I was satisfied with a plate of salad. In the evening too I had a bowl of salad and some soup.

Day 4: Thursday:  Bananas and Milk only
I thought that living through this day was the toughest one however for some reason this day passed without much issues. I had 2 bananas and a glass of milk for lunch and a banana and milk in the evening.

Day 5: Friday : Beef and Tomatoes
I was so happy to resume the normal diet. This day i ate some chicken (beef substituted with chicken) and lots of tomatoes.

Day 6 and Day 7: Saturday and Sunday : These were the easiest of all as you are allowed to resume your normal diet.

Finally i weighed myself at the end of the Day 7  and i had only 1 pound decrement from day 2   but still overall I had lost almost 6 pounds of weight.  So atleast my efforts were not completely in vain. I hope i can maintain the lost weight

4 Weekends in Flight !

I just realised the other day that I would be spending all four weekends in August travelling i.e. in flight.

1st weekend : SFO – DFW

2nd weekend : SFO – FRANKFURT – BUDAPEST

3rd weekend : BUDAPEST – FRANKFURT – NICE

4th weekend : NICE – FRANFURT – SFO