Damn it. Today is Friday

Monotonous weekday life for sometime has taken its toll on me i guess. My mind and body (like most others in the US) is eternally waiting for the Friday to arrive. Friday is celebrated with passion. Doing nothingsome on Fridays is acceptable and even appreciated. Anyways, if you are continuously looking forward for Friday, this is what happens............

I have talked to 4 different people today and told them that today is Friday. Well it is not!! At different points in the day various people have pointed to me that much as I might want it to be so "Today is thursday". The latest was a telephone call to my Travel agent. Nonchalantly i asked her "So u guys work tomorrow. No weekends eh??" And she said (just like the previous 3 times i must add) "Today is just Thursday". Well, So be it but my mind and body are just unwilling to accept it. They are resisting any attempts to accepting it.

Well then lets all cry in unison "Today is Friday" and maybe it will be.


PS: BTW, the time now is 3:22 PM . Lets see how many more times i am corrected today.

Chandramukhi

So last weekend i went to watch Chandramukhi. Thalaivar was awesome....and as usual Thalaivars movie is Thalaivars movie. We were a group of 6...Me,Renga,Shyam,Abbhi,Som and Lavanya. Poor Lavanya ....she expects such high standards of quality from a movie that she has lost/forgotten the art of enjoying a mediocre movie. So the less said about how she liked the movie...the better. Not surprisingly, both me and Renga liked the movie. Shyam was introduced to the world of Rajini worship where anything and everything that Superstar does is awesome. But unlike all the other reports from the US about jam packed theatres and highly vocal followers the theatre i saw the movie in was certainly not jam packed. The Rajini supporters here were subdued. Apart from a few random shouts of Thalaivar vaazhga, it was nothing like watching a Thalaivar movie back home..

As for the movie itself, it was definitely much better than BABA but that isnt saying much is it? The movie was Ok. It could have been made much better with more importance to the central character Jyotika...But then again, how could a Rajini movie give importance to anybody else...I think its time we escape this catch 22. Also, its definitely time he starts taking roles that are his AGE. He definitely looks his age.

Tamil cinema and Vadivelu in particular must at some point or the other stop making such crude and crass jokes that are much more than just suggestive. I didnt find most of Vadivelus attics with the sweeper lady funny at all. In fact i found it repelling. Anyways, i also do realize that , that is change that is not gonna happen overnight..But it needs to.

It would be great to watch a Rajini Kamal movie sometime soon.....Hope they can work something out. And best of all the movie should be a comedy...

Long absence

Theres no specific reason for the long absence from the blogging scene. Just lack of enthu to blog. After all, not all human beings can be expected to be as dedicated and committed as Deepak is. And theres nothing much happening around me this time around. So nothing much to say except....

Hope u all have a great day

Sleepy

Woke up early today and came to school early since i wanted to prepare notes for the DIP class i was scheduled to teach. But move seems not to be working since here i am browsing the internet since i am feeling sleepy. Should get back to preparing for the class

Chandramukhi

Heard really good reviews abt the movie.....I am looking forward to seeing this one..
Meanwhile just completed reading the book "An Unquiet Mind". Liked it...Pretty intense personal tale of maniac depressive illness.

Tomorrow i have to teach a Digital Image Processing class on "MPEG 4- Object based coding and face and body animation" and "Arithmetic coding". Right now i am preparing so that i may avoid looking dumb in front of a graduate class

Diappointed

Well,

Like most Indian cricket fans are, i am also greatly disppointed by the performance or the lack thereof of the current Indian side in the recently concluded one-day series agains Pakistan. The dismal plunge in performance of the team in one-dayers continues to surprise me.

Politically this series has definitely been successful with Musharafs visit.

Back in Md

I am now back in Maryland. The trip was good fun and i learnt a lot about machine learning. Made a few friends too....Am in lab to complete some small work that i had to attend to. I have finished doing that now. Am heading back home

Sorry No Photos

Since i didnt get my camera to this place, i could not take any great snaps. I just bought one of those frail disposable cameras and took a few snaps. I will develop them once i get back home. If the snaps are any good then i'll put them online.

Gen Photos

Some photos of the resort i am staying at can be viewed at
http://www.snowbird.com/ski_board/photo.php?photo=57

My Talk

Finally after 3 days of good fun and listening to some high quality talks on machine learning, i have something to do tonight. I will be giving a 20 minute talk today at 7:50 PM. and so i decided not to go skiing or driving today. Driving was anyway out of question since it is snowing like crazy. Supposedly the snow makes today an excellent day for skiing..But all that is for the pros (I guess like vijaykumar arunkumar!!!). But for me i am huddled inseide the conference room making the slides for my talk.

Desert it was

So after dilly dallying all through yesterday i decided to go to a desert. I thought driving would be fun and in any case i hadnt yet seen a desert at all. So immediately after attending the morning session of the conference i headed to rent a car. The ladies (2 of them) at the rental desk advised me against driving to the moab desert since that would be a 4.5 + 4.5 = 9 hr drive and that would mean i will have to drive up the mountain after nightfall. Moreover they warned that it was gonna snow pretty badly. I was almost convinced. They even gave me alternatives...The little Sahara a small desert that was about 2 hrs drive from Snowbird. But then came intervention in the form of a Southern Californian male who used to ski a lot. He drove the point real hard when he asked me...
"What the heck man. When are you gonna come back to Utah. In the worst case u might have to spend the night in the car. Is that so bad afterall? I would do it any day to get away from it all!!!"
So that made my decision and i started my drive to the Moab desert around 11 AM. The drive was long ...But well worth it. I hadnt seen anything like it before. There was huge barren lands filling the entire horizon and right at the very end of the horizon tall mountains, most of hard red rocky faces but some with snow covered tops. This was absolutely amazing view. I could only imagine how beautiful sunrise there would have been. Eventho i missed sunrise i was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the sunset on my way back. I stopped at a couple of gas stations to fill up energy for both my Pickup Truck and myself. But apart from that it was just one unending great road trip. I even made a brief 10 minute stopover at the Arches National Park which has some amazing views. BTW, i forgot to mention...The reason i was in such a hurry was because the next session of the conference began at 8:00 PM . So i wanted to be back round about then.

Anyways, after 9 hours of non-stop driving i was back at Snowbird at 7:54 PM. Good timing i would say. BTW the snow was slightly late in its arrival and was just about picking pace as i was making the last half hour of the journey. So there were no snow induced worries there. I should mention this here....This is THE ONLY PLACE I CAN THINK OF where during the day it was 70 degrees farenheit (thats about 28degrees celcius i think) but now during the evening its snowing like crazy. Its supposed to accumulate more than 16 inches of snow by the time the sun rises tomorrow.

Anyways, i didnt take too many pictures because even tho i enjoyed the drive it must be said, that it would have been about a thousand times better with friends...Nature was there displaying its glorious colors. I was there to watch the resplendent colors. But my friends werent there for me to really feel the joy of consuming natures glory.

Skiing at Snowbird

So finally i skiid today at Snowbird Utah. Its amazing, the slopes. And the best part is the fact that there is snow all around you....Huge mountains full of snow...And yet since the sun was shining hard the temperature was 60 degrees farenheit. That made for near exceellent conditions. I could Ski with just a T-shirt and that makes it even better. It was quite a sight to see those innocent unsuspecting few who had ventured out without sunscreen. They were all burned red. Luckily i was well warned!!!

So now i am at a dilemma. Tomorrow afternoon again theres gonna be some free time between 11 AM and 7 PM. I am either goiung to ski again or driving to the Maob desert. I am unable to decide which of the two. Any ideas/suggestions???

Snowbird Utah

I am spending this week attending a conference in Snowbird, Utah at a ski resort. So my updates will be relatively short. I promise to get to longer updates once i return. In fact there are a few pending updates including our trip to New York. As for now i shall leave you with a link to the resort location (which i assure u is absolutely fantabulous!!!!).

http://www.snowbird.com/

Snowbird Utah

I am away at a learning conference in Snowbird Utah. The location is a Ski resort and that makes life really busy(if u know what i mean). Apart from that, the fact also remains that this small conference is quite good and am being introduced to a new field...and am enthralled by it.
My postings will be shorter this week because of time constraints.....But i shall have more to say when i get back. In fact there are quite a few pending posts including New York Trip . I promise to get to all that sometime next week.

I will leave you all today with a link to the resort where i am staying
http://www.snowbird.com/

April Fool

Hey all,

Especially those who got fooled by my "Aravinds Marriage" post. Dont be disillusioned. I have been there and whats more I have been that too....

It was April 1. The day was nice and warm and Ashok had to wake up early to go to DC on official business. He left home at 8 and reached his destination in Washington DC at about 9 AM. He was standing in a line and therefore like most other people did not want to be budged away from the line by that telephone call that rang so loudly that almost everyone around me started staring at me. Well if they thought that was wierd, there was more to come. The call was from my dear friend Kavitha who has relocated to Kansas after securing a job at Sprint. She called me and enquired about my well being. I told her, quite bluntly i must say, that i was busy. She persisted and went on

" Hey Ashok. Its nothing man. Just wanted to share some personal news with you. My engagement has been fixed. I am getting engaged next month. You call me back when you get the time and i will tell you the details then. Take care".

That was it.....Ashok was suddenly surprised and thrown aback. Of crse i must clarify that this has no relation with Kavithas marriageability or watever that is. It was just that Ashok hadnt expected that, and that too so soon after relocation. Anyway our April fool, as we shall henceforth call him on this post, stepped away from the line and went on to enquire some details. She accepeted that indeed she knew the guy from Hindustan Engineering college and that she was extremely happy about it. She excused herself on the pretext that she had to call other people to inform them about the "NEWS".

Anyways, our April fool was all smiles throughout the period he was in the line so much so that the nice beautiful lady who attended to him enquired about his "infectious enthusiasm". Anyways immediately after he got out of the building he placed a call to Kavitha to inquire further about the details of her happiness. And thats when she broke the NEWS. Have a great day you April Fool. And thats how my day began. I am sure all of you had better beginnings.

Aravinds Marriage

I wish to bring to your attention the fact that the Post on Aravinds marriage was put up on April 1 widely regarded as April Fools day!!!

April Fool

Junta,
If u guys managed to congratulate Aravind....Good Job....
Coz the post made on April 1 was obviously a hoax.

Aravinds Marriage

Hi all,

R.Aravind from 12 B ....Do u guys remember him? He is the over enthusiastic energetic fellow who used to be the Butt of everybodys jokes. So finally he has decided to tie the knot. His engagement has been finalized. It will be help sometime in May. The marriage is contrary to most peoples expectations an arranged marriage. The girl is a nice Tamil/Teluga/Kannada/English/Hindi speaking Tam and supposedly a distant relative of Aravind. They met about a couple of months ago at another relatives marriage. I will let him finish off the rest of the details. I just couldnt wait to announce this, that as soon as i kept the phone down i logged in and started typing. The news hasnt yet sunk in. I dont know what i am feeling. Initially i thought that maybe it was too early for him (honestly man....Dont take offense.) But then thinking about it now...its probably best for him. He is working at iSoft earning a good steady income. Most of his close friends are spread all over the world and are unavailable for everyday meets/partying etc. Its probably good to get company in the form of the other half.....
Please do mail Aravind.Rajagopalan@isoftplc.com to pass your wishes.


I shall definitely update the blog with more of my feelings on this issue as and when i get time. But now, i must take leave and call a few people including Aasha chitti to inform them about this.