Still Tippin'

Ordering online photo prints

2006-08-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

Recently for the first time, I had the need to order some photo prints for a few digital pictures. Now, I consider myself to be a techhy but it occured to me that I had never done this before. I considered burning a CD with the pictures that I wanted and taking them to Costco. To my dismay, the membership card was with Anu and I didn't feel like going to her work and picking it up from her. Neither did I feel like waiting till she left work to go with her. I went to Costco's site and within 5 minutes I had uploaded all the pictures that I wanted prints for and placed the order to pick it up in the evening.

Now, I'm sure many of you have already done this before and are probably laughing at this. But this was my first time doing this and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised as to how easy the whole process was. It sure beats going to the store and waiting in line to place the order.

I love technology!

Presidents Club!

2006-08-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

I just recently scored 2 passes to the Continental Presidents Club. This will come in handy this weekend when we leave for India. We have a 4 hour break in Newark to/from India and it will be the perfect oppurtunity to lounge in the club during those 4 hours.

Thanks to Sax and Big Daddy Sax for hooking me up with the passes. I owe them for this!!

I will take pictures of the lounge so I can make everyone jealous...:)

Linky:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/travel/airport/lounge/default.aspx

Enter Honeymoon...

2006-08-17T12:25:00.000-05:00

After 3 months of being married, I am finally off on my honeymoon. Had a few things to take care off before we could plan this trip but everything is done now and off we go. We are going to spend a week in India and a week in Mauritius (island in the indian ocean near the eastern coast of Madagascar).

I haven't visited India since I was a sophomore in High School in 1994. I am excited about going back and visiting it after such a long time. I am sure much has changed and I want to decide if the changes have been for the good or bad. I am going to spend some quality time with my grandparents as well whom I haven't seen in 12 years.

After India we fly to Mauritus for 6 days in beautiful Port Louis. It is almost scary looking at the map because it is a small dot surrounded by miles and miles of ocean:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=mauritius&ie=UTF8&om=1

We are staying at the Trou aux Biches Hotel which is located directly on the west island beach. Here are some pictures of the hotel:
http://www.beachcomber-hotels.com/en/galleries/t_gallery.aspx?catid=4

It is a 9 hour flight from India to Mauritus and a 15 hour flight from Newark to Delhi. Needless to say we are going to be logging a lot of flying time. I am very excited about this trip and hope that it is all that I imagine it to be and more.

Entourage

2006-08-14T12:34:00.000-05:00

Being new to the DC area I decided to drive around DC to get a feel for the irrational design of the road system. I was driving down Constitution Ave when I noticed a traffic buildup ahead of me. Now Constitution ave runs perpendicular to streets increasing in ascending order and has a ton of lights at a very small distance from each other. I noticed that the traffic was backed up for about 3-4 lights (maybe 800 feet). There was traffic because police officers had blocked off the street on both sides. In about 5 mins I saw a hummer with soldiers, followed by 2 completely tinted black crown victoria's followed by a limo, followed by 2 hummers with swat team members, followed by an ambulance followed by 3 police cars and then a few more trailing police men on motor bikes.

Upon recounting this experience I was told what I witnessed was the presidents entourage as he travelled around DC to the White House. Now thats an Entourage!!

However, is it just me or is it unfair that they dont have to deal with traffic or traffic lights?

8 Hours of Posting labels...

2006-08-12T13:00:00.000-05:00

So another interesting day at work. I posted 150 labels on 150 dividers during my 8 hours. What a stark difference to what I used to do at snapstream. I was getting nauseous thats how mindnumbingly boring it was.

How am I going to last there for 1 year??

Moving sucks...

2006-08-07T14:13:00.000-05:00

I have moved again...4 th time in a little over 2 years. I have finally left the in-laws and have settled into a nice 900 sq.ft 1 bedroom apt in Pentagon City. It is about 5 mins from DC and 2 metro stops from GWU. It is even closer than that to Anu's work. So we are extremely happy and excited to have moved in and to start our new life together.

The move was quite bittersweet for me. Having lived with my in-laws for the past 3 months, I have felt very much at home and started to grow accustomed to everyone/everything around the house. Anu's parents took very good care for me and welcomed me with open arms. There was never a time where I felt lonely or a stranger in their house. I appreciate their efforts in making me feel at home and looking after me as their own son.

It was a struggle to move all of our belongings over the wknd. We made several trips with several cars before everything was finished. Anu's mom brought over enough food to last us for the upcoming week since we will be busy unpacking and wont have time to make any food. Slowly but surely we are settling in.

All I need now is internet. Comcast will be here on Wednesday to install it. Not having internet sucks.

So close...

2006-07-20T14:45:00.000-05:00

I made the grave mistake today of not holding an airline ticket when the price was right. Anu and I have been wanting to go to Chicago for a while now to see little Anshul, but given our thin spending budget the oppurtunity had not presented itself until this morning. There was a great deal to go from DCA-ORD and instead of holding it right away, I made Anu sign up for the American Airlines Frequent Flyer program. Five minutes later as we both finished creating our accounts, the deal had vanished. Calling the reservation desk was futile. And now, I am in the doghouse.

Mail in Rebates

2006-07-10T22:14:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a D-Link blue tooth adaptor from Comp-USA. It came with a $15 mail in rebate from D-Link. I sent out the necessary upc labels and receipts and now considering my package worthless (the original upc code was needed) throw it out. I then received a letter from D-Link saying my rebate was not valid because I didnt send in my UPC code. (Mind you I had it stapled to the receipt. I just forgot to make a copy and keep it with me). So anyways, feeling down on my luck for having thrown the original package I start cleaning my room. And voila!! I find the original package still missing the original upc. Finding the package gave me hope that I have some ammunition to battle with if I call customer support. I call the rebate center ready to put up a fight and within 5 minutes of locating my record without a single peep from me, the rep tells me its customer appreciation day and says he is changing the status of my rebate to valid and that I should receive the check in a week. And sure enough, a couple of days ago I received the check.

Now, what would have happened if I hadn't decided to call them? Does everything require the consumer to call customer service? I think the first thing these rebate houses do is send a rejection letter and I bet most consumers give up at that point, like I almost did. Is this legal?

Who is responsible for monitoring this?

So many changes, so little time...

2006-06-28T21:26:00.000-05:00

The following set of chronological events have taken place in the last 3 months:

- I quit my job
- I moved from Houston to the DC area
- I drove 2000 miles from Houston-Chicago-Washington, DC
- I got married
- I became a full-time bum staying at my in-laws house for 3 months
- I became the new kid on the block and dont have any friends in the area
- I became broke by spending my money and not having a job
- I applied for a loan for the first time in my life

Aptly put by a special someone, "Change is constant".

Priceless...

2006-01-13T16:50:00.000-05:00

Cheerleading, tumbling lessons and camps since age 3: $30,000
Annual cost of attending USC: $ 50,000
Annual cost for staying just the right shade of blonde: $10,000
Cheering when the other team scores: Priceless

Football Picks...

2006-01-13T14:05:00.000-05:00

Another weekend of fun-filled playoff football is upon us. This time its the Divisional Playoffs. My co-workers (Jason, Tom) and I have a bet going for the 2006 NFL playoffs. Each of us chipped in $20. The winner gets $40 and second place gets $20. The rules are as follows:

5 points for correct winner
4 points for correct margin of victory (only if you picked the correct winner)
2 points for +- 3 margin of victory (only if you picked the correct winner)

I should have done this last week when we invented our game, but here are the scores as of right now following last week's wild card playoffs.

Scoreboard
Jason	12
Amit	19
Tom	15

As you can see, I am the current leader and this week's picks are crucial for me to strengthen my position.

This week's picks:

Divisional Series	Jason		Amit		Tom
Washington@Seattle	Seattle	10	Seattle	7	Seattle	10
NewEngland@Denver	Denver	6	NewEngland	6	Denver	4
Pittsburg@Indianapolis	Indianapolis	13	Indianapolis	10	Indianapolis	4
Carolina@Chicago	Chicago	10	Carolina	4	Carolina	7

I hate studying...

2006-01-08T01:26:00.000-05:00

So another saturday passes and another 4-5 hour studying regiment has been completed. I am waiting for those days when I can come home from work and not have to worry about studying for something. I was supposed to study longer but I realized today that I can only concentrate on new vocabulary words for about 3-4 hours. After that my mind starts to wander and I simply cannot focus. The GRE is only 19 days away and nervousness and anxiety creeps in each approaching day.

On another note, my entire music collection on my laptop has now been synced to my Ipod. I went to Best Buy this evening to buy a clear skin for it only to be informed that they didn't have any in stock. Apparently it is a popular choice amongst fellow podsters' and their next shipment doesn't come in until Tuesday of next week. So the case has to wait.

My first song on the ipod...

2006-01-06T01:45:00.000-05:00

I decided to take a break from studying this evening. We had to go eat dinner at Benihana Grill to celebrate Josh's raise so the timing was perfect. The food was pretty good. My only gripe was that it took the chef a long time before he started making our dinner. We were all famished by the time he arrived which resulted in me eating the rice before the food was prepared. I did however get some extra fried rice that I hadn't actually ordered which made the long wait somewhat worthwhile.

My post dinner plan was quite simple; get the ipod in a playable state. After dilly dallying with ml_ipod and iTunes for a couple of hours and some expert advice from Gymboy, I was finally able to get winamp to recognize my ipod as a valid device and sync over a few songs.

The maiden song played back on my ipod...311-Amber.

UT wins

2006-01-05T02:29:00.000-05:00

UT needed a last minute heroic effort from Vince Young to put away USC in the title game. Divyesh, Josh and I had a bet going on who would win. Divyesh picked USC to cover the spread and Josh and I picked UT.

You owe us dinner anywhere we want Divyesh and 2 drinks each...uhhhhhhh!!

A UT victory was bittersweet for me. Although I got the free dinner, I lost bragging rights at work since I picked USC to win and I would have finished in first place had USC won.

Jason wins...bastard!!

The ultimate new toy...you guess what it is

2006-01-05T02:04:00.000-05:00

So as if my phone and my palm weren't enough I now have something new and grand to play with...yes, I finally got a 5th generation video ipod (pictures coming soon enough). I have been eyeing this puppy for a few months now but always thought it was a little too expensive for my taste. I had been begging Anu to get me that as a Christmas gift. Well today in the mail I find an envelope from my to be father-in-law and enclosed is a check for $200, his christmas/new years/good grades gift to me. It couldn't have come at a more appropriate time. I found this dude on Craigslist who was selling a brand new, sealed, unopened ipod for $260. He had purchased it as a gift for his son who ended up getting another ipod from someone else for Christmas so this dude wanted to unload his. I talked him down to $250 and he agreed.

So after studying the jaas and I started the journey (it was supposed to be a quick trip) out to this dude's place. Now, he said he lived on Highway 6 and Bissonett in a sub-division called Cedarcreek or something. Anyways, we drove up and down Bissonett and couldn't find the darn thing. After numerous phone calls, it turns out he was saying Beechnut (in a heavy asian accent, each syllable separated with a pause, Bee-shu-nut). I thought he was saying Bissonett. So now we go to Beechnut and finally find his sub-division. Next he tells us that his house is on a particular street but he can't tell us how to get there because he just moved in and doesn't know the names of the streets on which to turn right or left. He suggested we drive around the sub-division until we find his street. So here we are jaas and I making random left and right turns trying to find this street, as jaas is burping some funky smelling sh*t (at least he didn't fart) in my car and talking about how I made him miss the UT vs USC game. We finally find his house and step inside. There is a weird smell in the house and no furniture and no beds and some random mattresses sitting in the living room. To complement that, there is a plasma TV sitting across the mattresses and a brand new ipod that he purchased for his son. Not understanding the vast disarray of thoughts that were presented to us from these scenes, we conducted our transaction and left the place as quickly as possible.

Upon getting home, I opened it up and admired its beauty and physique while watching the Rose bowl. I didn't have a chance to put any songs on it. Just holding it in my hands made me happy.

Happy New Year...

2006-01-05T01:42:00.000-05:00

Well, its been a few days since I have been able to update this behemoth and quite a few things have happened since then.

Anu got back from India on Friday, Dec 30th (finally). It seemed like she had gone forever (3 weeks). I think it was the distance that made it seem longer. She was all the way on the other side of the world and I didn't even get a chance to have a decent conversation with her even though we spoke every day. Phone cards suck!

I got my new phone and I love it. My phone actually lets me know when I have a voicemail now; what a great concept! I haven't taken the plastic cover off yet and have been bitched at several times by people (ahem, Anu) to remove it. So far, I have stuck to my ground. The only thing I need now is a data cable so I can transfer music/photos from my laptop. Avm has a bluetooth adaptor at work, so I am going to use that for now.

The new year is upon us. 2006 is here and made its calm and equanimous (I learnt that yesterday) entrance in my life. Anu and I had a quiet evening at home after picking up my uncle from the airport and were watching Entourage and sipping some champagne as the clock struck midnight. It was very relaxing and I am glad we don't do the usual go out, party and get drunk thing. Besides she was still jet-lagged from her long journey back from India and rest and relaxation were the top 2 things on her mind (she will deny it if you ask her).

I have also gotten to play around with my new palm in the past few days. Seems fairly simple and intuitive to use. I set up tasks and reminders as things come up and it beeps and reminds me on time. Anu made me turn it off when she was here because she got annoyed of the constant beeping and felt that I was giving the palm more attention than her. I recently installed the infamous game, Dope Wars (I used to play it on didi's palm when she was in medical school) and have been playing it at work. Still trying to end the game with a positive cash flow.

Back to work I go. This is the first time in months where I have actually had a few moments at work to do something else aside from work. It's a welcoming surprise.

So sleepy

2005-12-30T02:12:00.000-05:00

Lufthansa flight 0757 needs to hurry up and land so I can go to sleep...It seemed like 10 mins 10 mins ago. This feels like the longest 10 mins of my life...aside from when I was giving my salutatorian speech of course.

Question...

2005-12-29T19:43:00.000-05:00

Why is it that when you are in a hurry to get out of some place that more stuff pops up at the last minute when it could easily have been done earlier?

So frustrating...throws off your entire schedule.

Two new toys...

2005-12-29T15:47:00.000-05:00

I am going to have 2 new toys to play with in the near future.

1. I came back to work from lunch and saw a Palm Z22 sitting on my desk. Apparently it is supposed to help me be more productive and organized. There is even a book called Getting Things Done that I have to read. Let's see if it helps me.

2. My dad recently went to Hong Kong and I told him to get me a new, cool phone so BAM! This is what he got me...Samsung E340E. Read some decent reviews about it. I wasn't really interested in the hi-fi cameras new phones have these days. I wanted something small, that has handsfree capabilities, custom ringtones and playback mp3's. This phone does all of that and more. Can't wait till I get my hands on it.

Guess who's back?

2005-12-28T15:24:00.000-05:00

Still Tippin is back. Its been on hiatus for a while as I was busy climbing the mountains of Himalayas on my way to Mount Everest. I endured a great deal of hardships on my way (lack of internet access) but that has made me a stronger person. I met a wise old man in my quest to conquer everest, hooebi one kenobi, who showed me the way to the righteous life.

Ok, I have been too lazy to update my blog for 5 months. I want to blame it on work, school and the GRE's so thats what I will do. I didn't have time to update it since I was so busy studying and working. Gymboy even gave me advice on how to not make your blog die, but I didn't heed it. So here is a second attempt, Still Tippin', Part Deux.

Happy Janamashtami.

2005-08-27T11:42:00.000-05:00

It is Krishna's birthday. Thats about all I know about this day. There are several ceremonies and pujs's going on at temples around the world. I am in D.C hanging out with the fiance and we plan on stopping by one. Not much time to write anything this weekend. Will resume the banter next week.

Day 11 of 30

2005-08-25T23:58:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: 2 packets of Oatmeal (320 calories)
Lunch: Schlotzskys (Sandwich - 800 calories)
Snack: Gatorade (50 calories)
Exercise: Batting Cages (200 calories)
Dinner: 10 piece nuggets (420 calories)
Snack: Khichdi (300 calories)

I finally weighed myself today. 159 pounds. I have lost 2 pounds. Take that bitches!

Day 10 of 30

2005-08-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: Oatmeal (160 calories)
Lunch: Subway, Turkey on wheat (780 calories)
Snack: Diet Dr.Pepper (0 calories)
Dinner: 2 bean burritos (740 calories)
Exercise: 2 mile run (300 calories)

Day 9 of 30

2005-08-23T21:54:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: None
Lunch: Half a chicken burrito (600 calories)
Snack: Gatorade (50 calories)
Dinner: The other half burrito (600 calories)
Exercise: Tennis (500 calories)

I need a weight scale so I can weigh myself and check on my progress.

The Near Perfect Proposal: The Fellowship of the Proposal

2005-08-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

I popped the 'BIG' question to my girlfriend (Anu) this past weekend and she actually said YES. I sometimes wonder how she puts up with me, but I will leave that for another topic of discussion. So as of Saturday, 8/20/2005, I am officially engaged.

This proposal was a much discussed topic amongst my friends. I wasn't sure exactly how I should be doing this. Several drafts of several plans were made and each time it was dismissed leaving me quite frustrated. Swati (Anu's sister) was my inside source in helping me plan this event. She told me the basics of what Anu wanted and did't want. She didn't want to be proposed in a hotel room and it had to possess 3 qualities:
a) an element of surprise
b) romantic/emotional
c) well-planned out

When Swati first told me this, I was quite overwhelmed and felt like this was an insurmountable task. I talked to a co-worker of mine who gave me a couple of good ideas, but it still didn't satisfy ALL the 3 conditions above.

Enter the Konkani Convention trip to Chicago. I love the city of Chicago and have visited it countless times in the past 3 years (my sister used to live in Chicago). It was Anu's first visit to the windy city and she fell in love with it instantaneously. We were walking down Michigan Avenue to the John Hancock building when she pointed out some windows jutting out the 8th floor of a building. It was a restaurant and it looks almost like part of the restaurant is sticking outside the building. It was very unusual, but it was right behind the Water Tower and hence had a spectacular view of the old Tower. She mentioned how she wished she had time to eat there. (For once, I made a mental note). She mentioned a couple more times that she wants to come back to Chicago and spend more time there since its such a great city.

It was after this trip that I decided Chicago may be a good place to propose and the restaurant she saw was a good candidate for the physical location. Now the hard part was to try and figure out this restaurant she saw. It took almost a week to figure this out. My sister and I did endless research on the internet to find the name of this mysterious place to no avail. We finally called Raju's (my brother-in-law) cousin who lives in Chicago who eventually got the name of this place. It's called Nomi. During this search, my sister suggested another restaurant, Cite Chicago. I looked at Cite's website and was immediately impressed by the spectacular view. It is located on the 70th floor of Lakefront Tower overlooking Lake Michigan with an amazing view of downtown Chicago. I decided to call them and they were extremely helpful. They helped me come with a plan on how I should say those 4 words. At this point, I was almost convinced that Cite Chicago would be the place. The view/ambiance would definitely make it a very romantic setting.

Now to the hotel. To go with the planned activities, I decided to get a nice hotel room in downtown Chicago. I was pricing a lot of hotel rooms with some great views, when I came across the whirlpool suite in the Sheraton Hotel. The suite didn't have a view of the lake, but had a whirlpool in it. View vs Whirlpool...hmm...I picked the whirlpool. There were going to be plenty of opportunities to enjoy the view. So I booked the hotel for that weekend.

That being said, the hard part now was getting to Chicago. The element of surprise had yet to be fulfilled. Anu was arriving in Houston, at 6:10pm on Friday evening. I took a chance and booked 2 tickets to Chicago on the 6:44pm flight to Chicago. I only had a 30 minute window from when her flight arrives to make it to our next flight. My mom was quite concerned about the whole thing and suggested that we perhaps take the next day's flight. I decided not to listen to her and booked the tickets anyways.

So everything was set. At least the things that were in my control were done. Some external factors that would affect this still remained namely: the weather had to co-operate and the airlines had to co-operate.

To be continued...(Please enter disc 2)

Question and Answer

2005-08-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

So, I went to the local subway today to get lunch. To my dismay, I pulled in to the parking lot and realized that I had left my wallet at work. Needless to say, I had to drive all the way back to work to retrieve it before once again proceeding on my journey to get lunch. If Jaas were there, he would have said "Dude man, you are losing it". I beg to differ.

The question I have is: Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? (the phenomenon here is having to come back to get your wallet) I can't possibly be the only one to whom this has happened to.

Day 8 of 30

2005-08-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: None
Lunch: Subway (Turkey on wheat, 780 calories)
Snack: Diet. Dr.Pepper (0 calories)
Dinner: Thalipeeth and Khichdi (approx 600-800 calories)

It's now been a week I have started writing this down. I started off weighing 161 pounds. The target is 155 by 9/17/2005.

Day 7 of 30

2005-08-22T13:57:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: None
Brunch: Personal Pizza at O'hare airport (1000 calories)
Snack: Turky Sandwich on Airplane (500 calories)
Exercise: Baseball game in 100 deg temperature (750 calories)
Dinner: 3 Enchilada Dinner (approx 1000 calories)

I didn't keep a record of Days 5 and 6.

Day 4 of 30

2005-08-19T13:24:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: None
Lunch: Half a chicken burrito (600 calories)
Snack: The other half (600 calories)
Exercise: Baseball (500 calories)
Dinner: Jamba Juice (440 calories)

Day 3 of 30

2005-08-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: None
Lunch: Schlotzskys (Soup & Sandwich - 1020 calories)
Snack: Gatorade (40 calories)
Exercise: 2 mile jog at memorial park (300 calories)
Dinner: Pasta (500 calories)

I'm not doing well with this diet. I find myself being hungry many times, like right now even after eating dinner. Bah.

Widget Mayhem

2005-08-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

One of my many sources (ok, my only source) recently told me about Konfabulator. You can download all kinds of cool widgets for placement on your desktop computer. From weather to puzzles to alien clocks, there's something for everyone. Check it out!

Day 2 of 30

2005-08-16T13:15:00.000-05:00

Breakfast: Oatmeal (160 calories)
Lunch: Subway (Turkey on wheat, 780 calories)
Snack: The leftover half pack of skittles
Exercise: Tennis (500 calories)
Dinner: Bean Burrito, 7-layer burrito (900 calories)

Not the best of eating habits but I haven't a chance to go to the grocery store and buy the required foods. As soon as I do that, I will be eating healthier.

30 Days, 30 Nights - A battle against fat!

2005-08-15T12:49:00.000-05:00

As most people know, I think everyone is fat (I use this term very loosely) and I don't hesitate to tell them so (I should be more sensitive towards other people's feelings on this matter, but will leave that for another discussion). Well as it turns out, lately, I have become fat. My uncle made a comment the other day and this was his exact quote: "Is that just a loose t-shirt or is that something I see underneath that t-shirt?". Needless to say, there was something under the t-shirt, my blob of a belly.

In response to this, I have decided to join Gymboy (GB) in his 30 day quest. (I didn't want to steal your title, but I think I did). He convinced me that I need to write down all the details of this campaign so that there will be no if's and but's about the results. Enter the creation of this blog. Hence it was only fitting that this be the first topic. My 30 days start today (8-15-2005) and conclude on 9-15-2005. That means I can regain my world-class athelete status in time for my engagement date. (9-17-2005).

Day 1:
Breakfast: None. (I blame Bejeweled 2).
Lunch: Subway (12-inch chicken teriyaki on wheat. approx calories count: 1160)
Snack: Half a pack of Skittles (120 calories)
Dinner: Chicken Nuggets (600 calories)
Exercise: None

My first blog entry

2005-08-14T23:22:00.000-05:00

Testing 1-2-3...I have joined the blogging world.