I gave in... 8:42 PM, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 2008 ...and bought myself an iPhone. Yes, I'm a traitor - but it's sooooo nice! PERMALINK | 2 COMMENT(S)

Kuselan - Semma Kadi 3:44 PM, MONDAY, AUGUST 04, 2008 Basically the story revolves around this wimp of a guy who doesn't have the balls to go talk to his old friend. That's it. Eight attempts and several depressing crying scenes later, the movie comes to an end much to the relief of the audience. What an idiotic movie! PERMALINK | 2 COMMENT(S)

Kuselan 11:00 PM, TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2008 Just got tickets to go watch Kuselan at the movies. The show is at 5PM on Saturday. I really enjoyed Sivaji, and I'm excited for this one. PERMALINK | 9 COMMENT(S)

Adobe and Akamai downloader 7:47 PM, FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008 I wanted to try out Adobe AfterEffects for a project and went to their site. And Adobe insists that I install an Akamai Downloader ActiveX control just to download their installer. Pretty lame! Luckily after some googling, I found the direct link. Here it is (for posterity sake): http://trials.adobe.com/akdlm/.../ADBEAFETCS3_ALP.exe PERMALINK | 0 COMMENT(S)

Customer Service? What a joke! 3:07 PM, THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2008 This time, I'm ranting about Verizon. I signed up for their Fiber Optic Internet Service. They gave me a 2 hour window today for installation. So, I excused myself from work and came back to wait for someone to show up. The problem is, said someone didn't show up. So, I call customer service(?) and was put on hold for ever. Then someone comes on and after getting all information says that he'll call me back in about 5 minutes. As you might have already guessed, he didn't. I call back after about 15 minutes and I get an automated response that said the reps are all busy and it'll take about 5 minutes for the next rep to be available. It was also very friendly and gave me an option of calling back after 5 minutes. Hmm... that sounded like a good idea. So, I decided to give that a shot instead of waiting for 5 minutes. I did get a call back after 5 minutes, but guess what, I was put on hold again - this time with a wait time of 7 minutes. I'm still on hold... I'm not even a customer yet and I already hate Verizon. This isn't going to be pretty. PERMALINK | 2 COMMENT(S)

It's official - new home 6:54 PM, FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008 After nearly 4 months, I've finally sold my town-home and bought a new place. Here are some pics of my new home. PERMALINK | 5 COMMENT(S)

Aavin Cheese 10:07 PM, SUNDAY, JULY 06, 2008 When Aavin Milk came out with a Cheese product - sometime in early 90s, it was the first freely available Cheese that you can buy at stores everywhere in India. I was a great fan of those Cheese chiplets that came in small 25 gram packs. When I moved to the US, I've been looking for the same kind of cheese that Aavin made. And among the hundreds of varieties of cheese available here, I've been trying them one by one based on the color, texture and hardness. Finally today, after about 6-7 years of casual searching I've stumbled upon the very common Havarti cheese which I'm sure is the same kind that Aavin used to make! PERMALINK | 1 COMMENT(S)

Thunderstorm in Seattle 10:46 AM, THURSDAY, JULY 03, 2008 It was fantastic - I have never seen such a wonderful display of lightning in Seattle before. This display has been going on for the last 16 hours and is still going on. According to the National Weather Service there have been more than 2500 lightning bolts in the past 24 hours and they are continuing. I love this weather - for some reason it makes me happy. Reminds me of home! PERMALINK | 2 COMMENT(S)

The ordeal of trying to sell a house 8:26 PM, WEDNESDAY, JULY 02, 2008 For the last 3 months or so, my home has stayed staged for a sale. I have been barely living in it - eating out everyday and going home only to spend the night; and on weekends I have had to stay out so that potential buyers can check out my place without interference. Well, I thought that paid off when a buyer made an offer and things started rolling. Meanwhile I was able to make an offer on a house that I loved and that offer got accepted and the rolling ball started to gain momentum. Until... we hit a snag from my blasted HOA (Home Owners' Association). The brilliant peeps in my HOA decided it was a good idea to scrutinize and document every teensy tiny defect in all the homes and sue the builder to fix them all. I'm not sure who to blame cuz they were probably provoked by those pesky real-estate lawyers. In any case, this issue came up during the lending process and my buyers were unable to get a loan. Because of this the rolling ball had to be stopped in its tracks and I'm back to square one. I'm going to pull it off the market - at least I don't have to live like a stranger in my own house. PERMALINK | 2 COMMENT(S)

Deep Zoom and Silverlight 10:04 PM, THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008 Check this out. Very cool! (needs Silverlight) http://deepzoom.soulclients.com/VE/ PERMALINK | 1 COMMENT(S)