GRRRRR

The last three days have thrown some pretty irritating events at me.. I had ordered a book online to be delivered to Gau in the US.. Since it hadn't reached day before, i called the international customer care number they had given.. The lady's accent was by itself hard to decipher from and was irritating but to top it, she put me on hold on an international call for 5 minutes!!! She must be freakin stupid.. Frustrating..

To relax myself later, i decided to see a movie.. I read a review on IMDB about a movie called "Live Free Or Die", not Die Hard 4.0.. It said the movie was one of the best comedies the guy had seen.. This had to be the single most boring movie I've seen.. At least in TR movies, u have him for comedy.. This just beat that hollow.. Absolute waste of 1.5 hours of my life..

This however has to take the cake for most frustrating.. I went to the TCS office to see why they had put only 3 of us alone in Noida for training.. When we got there, the security guy stopped us and asked us to write our names in the entry log.. He called up the sourcing guy and gave the phone to me.. The bugger didn't even let me get into the damn building and shooed me off from their saying the decision has been made in the corporate office and there is no way i can change it.. The least he could have done is called us in and told us the same in person.. And to think these guys are from HR and are good in people skills.. God save us when we join TCS..

MISSION ECNR

Went to the passport office to get my ECNR stamping done.. It has to be one of the most irritating things you can do when you are vetti.. No idea why they didn't do it for me when i applied for passport.. Idiots made me go again for it and charged 300 bucks for it..

The place should be on the verge of breakdown.. Endless queues(there are so many of them) of people waiting for hours together.. All i could think of standing was Kamal's dialogue in Anbe Sivam where he says "India Oru Jananayaga Naadu, Ingu Queue La Ellam Wait Panidhan Aganam".. The ventilation there is pretty bad, so it all together makes for a very stuffy morning.. There are people outside the office who fill your forms in the proper format for a reasonable price, either 10 or 20rs depending on what form it is.. Makes our job easier..

The worst part about the place is that there is just one Regional Passport Officer for each task.. The queues become serpentine cause of this.. For the ECNR work in the second floor, i had to start at the landing of the first floor.. This in spite of me being there by eight and the office starting only by 10.. Chennai folks would easily walk away with any early bird prizes.. The fun part of the place is the variety of people you meet there.. Loads of comic characters..

Once you get through all that and pay the fees, they tell you that you need to come again in the evening to collect the passport, which is another huge queue.. I started at ground floor landing for that.. Thankfully this one moves pretty fast.. The Indian government should seriously consider either employing more people to have more counters or open another passport office.. Everything in online anyway, so synchronising shouldn't be a problem.. The irony of the entire thing is that even after i stayed there and did the entire thing, i still have no idea what the ECNR means and why i need to get it..

BUSTED!!!

It had to happen some time and it finally did today.. Had gone to Spencer today with a few of my friends (Try the Chinese restaurant at the new food court, really good).. On the way back, the fat man in the white shirt pulled me over.. Those guys use Walkie Talkies extensively.. He was using it then to contact the next guy to stop another bike..

I was caught on two accounts, Speeding and Driving in the wrong lane.. I was guilty of both offenses though.. Doing 60 on a 40 km/hr road and driving in the lane for buses on mount road.. Don't think he thought of either of this when he stopped me but was clever enough to point it out to me when i gave him my license..

It's just ironic.. For about 2 odd years, i used to drive all around Chennai without a license.. Never once have i been asked to pull over, maybe i was just careful then using all small lanes.. Now i have all my papers and I'm being asked to pull over time to time.. The guy bugged me for about five mins and then i had to pay him 100 bucks and leave..

I don't know if it was a lesson well learnt but it surely was a waste of hundred bucks..

STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP

This is what has kept me entertained for the past one week.. A new TV series called "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip".. This is a behind the scenes look of a comedy-sketch show.. The show stars Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet and Bradley Whitford..

The show is supposed to be a drama but it is extremely humorous.. The humour here is kinda intellectual at times though.. The Dialogues are absolutely brilliant.. The Matthew Perry-Bradley Whitford combo would give Chandler-Joey a run for their money.. Matthew Perry is at his best here..

Not sure if this series will come to India anytime soon.. For those who are vetti, download it and watch.. I must warn you though, each file size is about 350 MB.. I have 14 of them and am in the process of getting the , so you can collect them from me if you want..

GOOGLED

Hmmm.. Being as vetti as i am nowadays, i decided to check out the various things Google had to offer.. Pretty mind boggling given the scale of the entire operation.. It's almost as if anything you want to do on the PC, can be done on Google alone.. Mostly..

What started with a simple search engine (complex in nature but easy to use) has manifested itself into one of the world's biggest corporations and the growth only seems to be increasing exponentially.. A true marvel.. Hats off to Larry Page and Sergey Brin..

Now what prompted me to write this was 'Google Reader'.. Simply amazing place.. Anything that you normally want to keep yourself updated about can be read off just one place.. This could be anything from the latest news, sports updates or even updates on peoples blogs.. This eliminates us from having to go there each time to see if anything new has been posted..

The next best thing in Google is that you get to do so many things with just one id.. The advantage of this is that you could use one service inside another and it takes zero effort.. The downside of this, which gau unfortunately is experiencing, is that if you lose the id, you lose everything.. And that seems to be a lot, given that Gmail and orkut have become integral to most of us now..

I recommend 'Google Reader' to everyone for how easy it makes looking up info.. Planning on testing all other Google applications too.. Will give you my opinion of the same in the coming days.. I heard Google is coming out with an OS.. If true, it could be as revolutionary as the iPhone maybe.. Wow, something to look forward to..

P.S If you are wondering why this picture for the logo, it was to portray the 'Magic of Google' given the broom etc (a la Harry Potter) :D

F.R.I.E.N.D.S Deleted Scene

This one is just hilarious.. Beginning of the eighth season.. Episode 803.. Just too good.. Damn.. I miss the show.. Spent two hours on youtube now watching all F.R.I.E.N.D.S bloopers and interviews..

Jack Jack Attack

One of the best animated shorts i've seen.. Hilarious.. Pre Requisite is that you should have seen "The Incredibles".. Pixar Rocks.. Just check out the other short animations by pixar on you tube.. Too good..