rantlust » prchandr

Language, football, movies

prchandr — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 03:19:41 +0000

I have heard people use a few words that irritate me no end. One of them is ” anyways” the other is “my bad” .

It is especially irritating when Indians use it. I am not sure why but that is the way it is for me. It is irritating when anybody uses it really, especially in the office.

I was told in LA that most people use “my bad” and it is ghetto slang. Teachers use it to connect with the students. That I suppose is understandable to some extend but I would think their job would be to teach good english. But I guess not.

I have been watching Monday night football for the past 10 minutes. It is really boring. A one way contest. Nowadays most football games seem to be that way. The teams are mediocre and focused on one person who most of the time never plays well. I lost interest in football 2 seasons ago as there was no real competition. Most teams were hyped up and when they came up against the best team they usually lost.

Yesterday I saw History of Violence. OK movie but not worth paying money to see at the theatre. I just wanted to go and see something so that way it didn’t really matter to me. It is a pretty slow movie with a lot of violence strewn in between the slow scenes.

Internet stocks

prchandr — Sun, 25 Sep 2005 18:09:28 +0000

I recently read an article in the Economist which talks about the current internet bubble where companies are spending huge amounts of money to acquire other internet companies. Examples being Yahoo buying Alibaba , Ebay buying Skype etc. Though Skype doesn’t make much money, Ebay still paid a ton of money for it. Also the technology that Skype uses can be duplicated easily and so competition is going to be intense and growth is not going to be easy in terms of revenues.

The companies are just trying to position themselves for the future not knowing what will happen in the future so they just acquire companies and hope things will go their way.

Bangalore

prchandr — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:06:06 +0000

I am visiting Bangalore after two years. The main change I see is that there are so many malls. All of them look the same as in the U.S. Very nice stores and good eating places. Most people seem to go there as that is the only place you can get parking in Banglore and also have a good time. All these malls have theatres in them. The traffic is usual, moves slowly. Somebody told me the other day that if you are not a software engineer in Banglore you are nobody. It is a generalization but maybe enough people think that way here. The house prices are shooting up same as in our wonderful bay area. One day an apartment is Rs. 40 lakhs and 2 months later it is Rs. 50 lakhs. The same 2 or 3 bedroom apartment. If it rains here as it it did in Bombay a few weeks back the result will exactly be the same. Nothing will move.

Also another thing I find wonderful is that people still are amazed when they find that government officials in general are corrupt and it takes bribes to get anything done or influence.

I lost my father in law to cancer a few weeks back. It is one ugly disease and the hospitals and doctors here dont help much either. Only higher powers can help anybody. the doctors prescribe every medicine on this earth and are so busy that you can never get more that 10 minutes to talk to them. So most of the time you are left in the dark.

Video Games

prchandr — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 05:44:00 +0000

I just read an article saying video games are helpful to those who are ill. This is an expert opinion in a medical journal. I guess people have to do research on something. Anybody who has half a brain knows that anything that distracts you from the pain of an illness (whether it be minor or major) is therapeutic. The things people have to do to keep a job. I am sure this is from some professor who had to write a paper on something so he went ahead and wrote about video games and how it helps people get through their illness.

I will never be surprised at what gets written. It reminds me of a joke somebody told me:

“A man got caught for not stopping at a stop sign. He got a ticket and he went to court. In the court the judge asked him why he did not stop at the sign. The guy said “I dont believe everything I read”

I am waiting for some engineer in India to get back to me. It is late night now and I would rather sleep than work. But what the hell, I need the job so i can get a free internet connection and blog.

Khushwant Singh

prchandr — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:31:12 +0000

This time when I was in India around February I was visiting the book stores as I usually do to just see what is interesting. I find book shopping in India more fun than in here in the U.S. I knew who Khushwant Singh was and that he had written lot of joke books but not more than that. I saw his autobiography and was interested so I picked it up. It is a very interesting and funny book and he is a very interesting personality.

For instance I had no idea that he was a diplomat for sometime. He also writes about Indian history as he was there to witness the independence of India. He was born in what is now Pakistan and his views on India and Pakistan are interesting as it comes from a person who knows both places very well.

He also talks about his relationship with the Gandhi family and it makes for very interesting reading.

Berkeley Marina

prchandr — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 16:20:47 +0000

Two weeks I went with my wife and her friend to the Berkeley Marina. I had never gone there before. It has a sailing club where you can learn sailing. Am not sure how much it costs. I did not check.

It is part of a large park and it is a nice place to walk around and has trails to bike and roller blade just like Shoreline. There is one restaurant called Skates right on the water and it has a nice bar and very good service. The food is very good. It is a nice place to go to relax and just walk around.

NBA finals

prchandr — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:56:40 +0000

Unless you are present in the arena watching the basketball game these games are not fun to watch as they almost always lopsided. Who wants to watch a game when you know which team is going to win and when there is no real competition. This goes for pretty much any sports. I would rather play than watch unless the competition is very exciting.

Nowadays with the steroids and players moving around all the time there is no team which you can really root for. I used to watch football but it has become pretty boring now to watch for some reason. Good thing really because now i have a lot of time to do other things.