Light and Mobile

I realized that my laptop was heavy, during one of those runs from a gate to a different gate at the airport (with the laptop in my backpack, and a garment bag in my hand). Given that I run between gates quite a bit, I decided to get a Netbook. I configured a good one on Dell and got it a couple of weeks back. I also decided that I did not want to install any software on it. I signed up for Google Docs to avoid the heavy footprint of MS Office on the Netbook. Since I use an air card all the time I am traveling, I figured I did not need Outlook on the Netbook. It has worked out extremely well so far. The Netbook is surprisingly fast and the keyboard is not at all bad for a 10.1" screen. I am getting very comfortable with it.

Shazam

Desert Rose, by Sting - a number that I have heard several times in the past, but did not know who sang it (I really don't know much beyond Bollywood music). I could not get the lyrics to search on the web either. It was a song that I wanted. So, here I was, checking in at the Sheraton right next to LAX two nights back. And this number started playing in the lobby. I immediately started the Shazam app on my iPhone. I wasn't too hopeful, as there was a lot of background noise and the song wasn't being played loud either. But to my surprise, Shazam got it! And I bought the song off iTunes right there. It was the first time I used the latest version of Shazam. The previous version had failed in cases with background noise. But I think they have a cool tool now. Two thumbs up!

Disney World

My brother was planning a trip to Orlando with his family. My son loved the idea of visiting Magic Kingdom again (he was here last Christmas). So, we decided that he and I would come down to Orlando for three days. My wife decided to join us for two days.

Unlike my last couple of visits to Disney World (which were single-day trips), this one has been more relaxed. I have been able to stop, look and appreciate a lot of the shows, rides and attractions. I spent a day each at the Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios. This place is truly magical and I really cannot think of anything even remotely similar to these theme parks. I loved the parades and the fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. These were truly amazing! My son loved this whole experience so much, that I decided to extend my stay here till the end of this week. I have been trying to balance my conference calls with the time I spend in the theme parks! I plan on taking him to the Magic Kingdom one more time tomorrow, before we head back home on Saturday.

The Yankees Win!

I have been following baseball (and have been a die-hard fan of the Yankees) since the summer of 2004. That made 2009 the sixth season. And finally, Yankees went on to win it all earlier this month. It was a great day and I celebrated it like a crazy fan. Clearly, this team was far better than any of the other 29 teams this year. Hopefully, Yankees will retain that edge next year.

A lot of skeptics wrote off the Yankees early in the year. And a lot of them felt that Angels or Phillies would beat them, even after they made the playoffs (in spite of the Yanks sporting the best record of the year, by far). And when they finally won it, there was a lot of talk about how the Yankees "bought" a championship. To me, that is not a fair statement. If the Yankees have a higher budget than the other teams, it is due to a combination of two factors. One - the team has a lot more fans and supporters than other teams. That means more people want to see the Yanks win than the others :-). Secondly, the ownership has been investing most/all of the profits back into the team (which is a well known fact), unlike other owners who want to pocket profits and not really care to bring in the best possible players. Anyway, I guess there will always be people who find faults with the Yanks, irrespective of the results. So, I will choose to ignore the negative comments/press and celebrate through the off-season!

End of the Year

Each year, I approach the end of the year with the mindset that not much is going to happen at work. And each year, I run into surprises - mostly pleasant. Leftover budgets and forgotten initiatives end up in hastily scheduled discussions and busy times. This year has been very different. There have been so many planned initiatives that were kicked off in November (and a few more scheduled for December), that things have been extremely hectic. I still have not had a chance to discuss leftover budgets with some of our key customers. We have been hiring pretty much every week, which is an indicator of how things have been. They say growth can be a good problem to have. I've always said that it can be a BIG problem to have. I am going through that big problem phase, once again.

End of Season

Yesterday was the last day of the regular MLB season. And the Yankees finished it off in a dramatic fashion with their 10-2 win over the Rays. This was probably the best year since I started following the Yankees in 2004. Of course, the quest is not over, yet. The playoffs begin on Wednesday and I am hoping that the Yanks have it in them to win 11 more games this year! Given how the players on this team have bonded, I would think they are the favorites to win the World Series. Well, we will know before the end of the month!

Off to the Big Apple now, for a late morning meeting!

What, is it Fall already???!!

Time really flies, doesn't it?! It seems like Christmas was just a few weeks back, and we are already in the Halloween month. It seems like I was in San Francisco for the 2008 Oracle event just a few days back, and I have to be there again next week. And it seems like my last blog entry was just a few hours ago, but four months have rolled by in the blink of an eye!

It has been an extremely busy year. The whole of 2009 has been a blur, pretty much. I have been traveling to all kinds of places every week, staying home probably on an average of three days a week (not at all good). Business has been great, expanding into Canada and Europe. At home, things are nice and my son is growing taller and taller! We are contemplating whether we should move out of CT, given that the winters are proving to be too harsh on my wife. We will figure it out in the next few months.

And my favorite season of the year is here. I was driving home from Boston yesterday and the fall foliage colors were awesome. I guess we will see the peak colors in about a week. The temperature is just right. I guess I will take the family out on a drive this weekend to see more colors.

And by the way, my fall resolution is to be a little more frequent with my blog entries :-)

Guests

Here is the picture of one of the snakes, which lived by the steps in front of my house.  They seem to have moved away, as the gardener put mulch around their hideout last week.  I miss them now! :-)

Wide Screens

I guess the computer makers wanted to ensure that computers can be used to watch movies more effectively, and hence converted to a 16:9 aspect ratio a few years back.  But I feel it has not really been a good move.  I am sure there are people that use laptops primarily to watch movies.  But I think there are a lot more users who use computers for other purposes, especially browsing the internet.  Most of the web content is still designed for lower resolution screens.  It really makes a good portion of the wide screen redundant.  My laptop has an HD screen with 1920x1200 resolution.  And attached is a scaled down version of the screenshot of a Rediff page on it.   I think well over 50% of my screen is not used, when browsing general internet content.  Duh! What were they thinking?!  I guess the only gain for me is that the keyboards are a little more comfortable to use, given the wider dimensions.  But when I see some of the pages, I wish I could swivel the screen to switch length and width!

It hurts...

I played the first official game of the 20/20 Cricket season on Sunday.  The weather was nice, but cloudy.  We were playing the team full of Caribbean folks.  They won the toss and elected to bat first.  10 minutes before the game, I found out that I was keeping.  Not a problem, I thought.  Except that it had been almost 13 years since I kept wickets at that level.  I padded up and enthusiastically ran in.  I did much better than I expected - did not concede any byes and did not drop any catches.  But I ended up blocking some balls which I would have gathered cleanly, 13 years ago!  They scored 125 in 20 overs, and it was drizzling pretty much all through their inning.  But when we started, the rain started coming down heavily.  I was padded up to go in at #3, but the game was called off after 3 overs in our inning.

While I had not had any issues keeping the wickets, I realized late in the evening that my legs hadn't liked my wicketkeeping stint!  I had to get to the crouching position about 150 times during the game.  I have been biking a bit and running a little this spring, I was in no shape to do that many sit-ups.  It's been really painful the last two days, especially climbing down the stairs!!!  I have the next game on Saturday.  I am hoping that the pain would have subsided by then, so that I can keep the wickets again.

Snakes

My wife saw a snake the other day near the front footsteps of our house.  Knowing that venomous snakes are extremely rare in the Northeast, we were not too alarmed.  We researched and found out that it was an Eastern Ribbon Snake, which is harmless.  When she saw that snake again within the next couple of days, she was a little worried.  Then she showed me that there were two of them, sunbathing right next to the front steps.  We did not want to kill them.  I thought of using the shovel to move them away from the steps and closer to the woods/stream that runs through our property.  But I realized that they move really fast and that I might not be able to keep them on the shovel until I get to the stream.  So, they continue to live in a hole next to the steps.  I read that snakes of this species mate in spring, and give birth to about 10-12 babies in July/August.  I am worried now, and am trying to think of ways to move them away from the front entrance, without harming them.

For now, I see them sunbathing every morning.  I try to say "Good Morning"!  But they do not seem to like me much, as they run away as soon as they see me :-)

Butterfly, Butterfly, Fly Fly Away...

I lived in a town called Tarikere in the district of Chikmagalur in India, between the years of 1979 and 1982.  We had a GREAT front yard.  There were lots of flowering plants and my Mom also planted vegetables there.  My siblings and I used to play all the time in the yard.  There were countless butterflies and dragonflies that were attracted to our yard.  We used to chase them, catch them and play with them.  Looking back, I am sure we were cruel to them in many cases.

Fast forward to 2009.  We took my son to a butterfly conservatory (http://www.magicwings.com/) about three weekends back.  The entry fee was $32 for the three of us.  They did have a ton of butterflies and it was a nice visit.  We ended up buying a small box that had eight caterpillars (for $40).  I was remembering all those hundreds of butterflies that flew in our garden in Tarikere.  I could appreciate my childhood experiences a lot more, given how much we had to travel and spend to get my son to see the butterflies.

We brought the caterpillars home, waited anxiously for them to gain weight and transform to chrysalis.  Two of them died within a week.  The other six managed to climb up to the roof of the box and hang upside down.  Of those six, two fell down within a day.  We took them out and put them on a plant, upside down.  The other four are still going strong and are expected to come out as butterflies anytime.  My wife, son and I have been following this metamorphosis very closely.  When I saw that the two chrysalis had fallen off the roof, I felt really bad.  And I started thinking about all the butterflies I had been cruel to, when I was a kid.  I added one more item to the list of things I should not have done.  That list is getting longer :-)

Let's Go, Yankees!!!

The season starts today, and the Yankees play their first game tomorrow against the Orioles.  It has been an eventful offseason, to say the least.  Yankees have made some great additions in Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira.  I am hopeful that they will win it all this year.  They had a great pre-season, and won 24 out of 35.  If they carry that form into the season, there is no reason why they shouldn't be celebrating at the end of October.  However, AL East is the hardest division, with two other really loaded teams in Red Sox and and the Rays.  It is going to be a an exciting season and I am hoping to get time to watch a good number of games!!!

Good read

I would love to see President Obama succeed.  And I appreciate his sincere intentions.  But I am apprehensive about his and his system's abilities to turn things around within a reasonable amount of time.  Here is a good article from NY Post that caught my eye - http://www.nypost.com/seven/03072009/postopinion/editorials/just_fix_it__barack_158393.htm

For that matter, I never really felt that a single person could repair everything.  But his pre-election promises and commitments made people expect magic from him.  I guess he put himself in this unenviable position.  Good luck!

Spring Forward!

I had not had a chance to write much in the last couple of months.  Of course, all the gloom and negativity does not help either.  This time, I decided not to write anything about the markets, and keep a positive outlook.  I decided also not to write about the recent terrorist activities as well.

I signed up to play Cricket for a team in the CT league this summer.  In fact, the games start at the end of March.  I have a lot of running to do to condition myself to be able to play in these games.  Spring is right around the corner, with temperature tomorrow expected to hit almost 60.  I will probably start running around the lake again!

I was also looking forward the start of Baseball season.  But some of the incidents over the last month have cut down my excitement.  A-Rod's steroids usage admission was the first one.  But the subsequent press coverage has made it far worse.  I mean, this guy made a mistake and apologized.  Out of 104 people, press chose to leak only his name, and has been chasing him down every single day.  It does not matter if he plays, does not play, hits a homer or even strikes out - press has to put him in the headlines and complain about him.  I am so sick of these articles that I have stopped reading Sports section of NYC newspapers.

Winter is pretty much over.  I managed to go skiing for a couple of days, and had a lot of fun.  Next season, I think I will take lil' Sid with me and try to see if he can start skiing!