Katrina's Havoc

You must have seen the July 2005 flood pictures I posted of Mumbai. I think people of Mumbai will feel good about their situation compared to what people are facing in New Orleans. The city is totally under water. The pictures on every news site are just overwhelming. I just hope that everything comes to normal sooner than later. They say that the city will be non-functional for 2-3 months. Thousands of people have had their lives disrupted, no jobs, no schools and no houses to stay in. I am sure there is a lesson to be learnt from all this. First, Don't play with nature. Second, Avoid erecting cities in places which are prone to such disasters. The fact that New Orleans is 20 Ft below sea level and surrounded by water bodies is enough to predicate such a situation. And third and the most important one, Evacuate when a hurricane is knocking at your door. No matter how strong your house maybe, doesn't matter if it withstood some damn hurricane years ago. Even if the winds don't blow away your house, floods are always possible. Plus no electricity, drinking water and supplies. It makes sense to just get out of ground Zero.
People are saying that it looks like a third world country. Very True. But let me tell you that such a huge natural calamity can take down the mightiest. The sad part is all the looting and violence. That I would think happens only in developing nations. But I now know that it happens out of desperation. People are similar all over the world. Hunger and poverty make you do things you shouldn't. I just hope people act sensibly and stop all this.

Crazy Fat Woman!!

I read this article where a woman filed a complaint over her doctor's advice to lose weight.
This is just plain ridiculous. What have people come to. Just because you are free to sue and complain, you do it on useless points. Who else is going to advice you on something that is dangerous to your health and life. This woman is crazy. And the poor doctor even apologized. He was just trying to make her understand that she would face more health risks and maybe a shorter life if she did not lose weight and she got angry. I understand it might be hurtful because women especially, never like to hear that they are overweight. I am sure even a 120 lb. woman will get angry if you say to her that she seemed to have gained a pound. But to file a complaint?? What next, Sue?
Someone I know is overweight and this person ate everything, especially deserts and ate out every single day. One day, the person could not breathe while walking back to the car. That is when the light bulb went off and losing weight became a priority. I am sure nobody wants to reach the point when you fear the end of your life. And I applaud this person for taking control.
Sometimes it is just weird, people know something is bad for their health like obesity, smoking or drinking but they never stop doing it. Is this the human nature?

Lazy week crawling by

From the lack of activity here, it should be evident that I am either in a cave or just out of ideas for good posts. Well actually I may have some ideas, but then they are generally related to the current issues and being strongly opinionated, I did not want to sound too bitchy out here. Anyone who is a regular here would think I always speak about issues that are anti-US but that is far from the truth. I generally take up anything I feel is wrong. Of course that might just be me. But the important thing is that there are hundreds of more things I love about USA and that is why I am here. To list everything out would become too long, so lets leave it at that.
Anyway, this week I haven't cooked 2 nights so far. Today I watched the remaining half of Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason. I have so much more to do but the monster television eats up most of my time. I am learning a new Indian language and I haven't done my lessons since a long time. Need to do a lot of revision. For those of you who aren't aware, India has more than 15 officially recognized languages and greater than 1600 dialects. That was the Trivia of the Day for you.

Shuttle Discovery takes a ride home!!!

I saw the video of Shuttle Discovery being flown back to Florida. It was such a great shot. Here are a couple of pictures from the NASA website that show how the shuttle was flown over a 747. Just Awesome!!

American schools dump coke, pepsi

I read this article and I thought, well that's a beginning. Finally authorities and people who have an indirect hand in making people fat are taking a different approach. I hope this will really help the coming generation of school kids. Don't know if today's kids will actually like this but if they don't have a choice they will have to get used to the healthier option. I hope wending machines everywhere start stocking juices and low-calorie, low-fat options. Even in high schools, universities and offices, people should be given an option to choose something that will benefit them.
It is just so difficult to resist temptation sometimes. Yesterday, when I went to see the movie Red Eye, I happened to pass by a candy store right next to the movie hall. It seemed like a family run store. There were hundreds of variety of all kinds of candy. Man, what would happen to a child if he/she is put inside that store. I am sure they would come out buying more than I did. :(.
As for the movie, it was pretty decent. A bit boring at start but got interesting later on. Did finish fast though.

"Someone" won't let me watch Food Network

Well, here I am early from work today because I skipped gym. Didn't feel like going, just want to chillout today and the rest of the weekend. So sat on the couch and changed the channel to Food Network. Somehow if there is nothing else on TV, I can watch whatever is cooking on Food Network. Not absolutely anything, but Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals, Alton Brown's Good Eats, Unwrapped, Secret Life of... etc. It's just fun besides learning something by chance. Most of the time they cook red meat which I don't eat. I only have chicken and maybe fish and shrimps. Anyway, so still it's interesting. But well the channel was flipped on me (By "someone" of course) as soon as I got up to put my pineapple back into the fridge. So I thought here is a good chance to write a post about this. As if I had an alternative!!!
Sometime back I had read an article about Rachel Ray which says that there are entire blogs on criticizing her. The article is pretty good and it defends Ray. In my opinion she is pretty decent. She may not be fancy but she seems practical. In contrast, I feel Emeril is more of a showy cook than of substance. Or its maybe that I just don't like what he comes up with. But I absolutely love Alton Brown. He is really funny and his show Good Eats gives a lot of good tips and tricks. And well ofcourse, there are always the other shows about contests and the new Italian chic who I don't really think is that great. But well, I don't get to watch FoodTV too often as it gets beaten by TBS most of the time especially by the re-re-re-runs of Seinfeld.
So well here is my Friday evening for you. I will be going out later tonight with "someone" to eat at a fast food Mexican place and then catch a movie, most probably Red Eye. Seems to have got good reviews.

Rising Gas prices

I came across this article on cnn.com today about Walmart's worry over the rising oil prices diminishing their sales. I believe it's not just Walmart but every major retail company is going to face the same situation. Consumers are going to lessen their spending due to higher portion of their budgets going towards gas. According to one of those useless polls, it says more Americans are worried about rising gas prices affecting them in the future. Is that rocket science? It also says, people in lower-middle income groups will face more problems, again doesn't take a genius to figure that out. Unless you are Donald Trump, I am sure you are worried about your escalating gas station bills.
So is there a solution, is there a cap on the gas prices? People in the USA do not realize that they have been paying one of the lowest gas prices compared to other countries. They have had it very easy so far. Even the prices now, though they seem high are actually coming to par with what the rest of the world pays. Well we can argue that we drive more cars and for longer distances and hence we feel the difference. But I think it has been a viscous circle. Because fuel prices were so low all these years, people started relying more on cars to take them places, even take road trips compared to flying at exorbitant rates. Then people started buying bigger, bulkier cars and SUVs and didn't think twice about the mileage on them. This is now biting them in the wrong place.
I think we have to reduce our dependence on cars and hence fuels which are in limited supply on our planet. We have to go for hybrid cars and till that becomes common, we have to learn to carpool. In Phoenix, AZ people are encouraged to carpool because of the high ozone problem. Employees are even given incentives to carpool like closer parking spaces and monetary benefits. People who travel more than 10 miles one way should especially find a riding partner. I am sure that is saving a lot of gas over a year besides keeping the air slightly cleaner.
Our fossil fuels are going to burn out one day and you may say that you are not going to be around then, but think about the future generations. We have a moral responsibility to keep our environment clean and healthy for everyone on this Planet.

Air travel safe or not??

Lately, there have been so many plane crashes or mishaps. I remember it all started when I heard about the Air India plane skidding on Mumbai airport due to so much rain and water. But fortunately not much damage was done. Then maybe a week later, we heard about the Air France plane skidding off the runway. Passengers were lucky to escape but the plane did catch fire. Then comes the Cypriot plane crash in Greece where all 121 passengers and crew aboard died. It is still kind of a mystery as to why the plane crashed. They say cabin pressure fell and most people had become unconscious or actually died before the actual plane crashed. That's just eerie!! And then not even 3 days later, we hear about the West Caribbean Airways aircraft crashing killing all 160 aboard. This is just too much. Seems like there might be a slump in the aviation industry again if this happens so regurarly. I am sure people need to go places, but then people will be more scared too. This to me just feels like an X-files episode with aliens playing tricks.
Air travel should be safer because of our increasing reliance on this mode of transportation. With bigger aircrafts like the Airbus A380 coming into the picture, more care needs to be taken because there are more lives at stake within a single aircraft.
I just hope all the people who have lost their loved ones have the courage to continue with life. I hope God gives them courage to deal with the trauma!

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire Mistake

According to The Leaky Cauldron website, fans have noticed a blunder in the promos of the new Harry Potter movie. In the Goblet of Fire, to quote from the website, "Harry is shown standing in front of a grave with three names written on in, including one that reads "Tom Marvolo Riddle 1915-1943". As we know, that is the name of Lord Voldemort,and who, despite his err unnatural state at the beginning of the sequence of Goblet of Fire, was not buried in that grave. He also did not kill the Riddles until 1944 or 1945. Readers have also pointed out that even if this was the name of Voldemort's father, then he would have only been 11 years old when Voldemort was born." Read more here.

Amazing Sand Art

I was cleaning up my inbox when I found an old mail about sand sculptures that are intricately done. They are really so cool, that I thought I should share them with you all here. I am sure whoever has done them has immense talent. Unfortunately, I don't have any links for this one.

More Sand Art

Because all the pictures don't fit in one post, here are some more.

3D paintings on pavement

While browsing on the internet, I came across one site which had pictures of these amazing 3D paintings done on pavement. If you look at these from a particular view point, they look so real and life like. I have some sample pictures here that I found from the site about Julian Beever who does these paintings. Be sure to visit for more breathtaking paintings.

One of the latest ones, I believe.

This is when viewed from a wrong angle.

Politicians Meeting Their End

This has to be viewed using an inverting mirror.

And finally, what we all love..

My Top Ten Workout Songs

Sometime back when I got my new Ipod, a gift from someone special, I was looking to load songs that make my workouts fun. I try and go to the gym regurarly but I get bored listening to the radio especially when doing cardio. One, there are more ads than songs and two, not all the songs are paced well for aerobic workouts. So I searched for good workout songs online and did find a few but not all were to my liking. So I have compiled my own top ten here from my collection of fast paced songs in both English and Hindi. These songs get a place in the countdown because they encourage you to continue when you are tired and thinking of stepping off that treadmill or stepper. So here it goes...

10. Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
9. Angel Eyes - Raghav
8. Are you gonna be my girl - Jet
7. To Brazil - Vengaboys
6. Uns Dos Tres - Ricky Martin
5. Toxic - Britney Spears
4. Lets get it started - Black Eyed Peas
3. Maximum Overdrive - 2 Unlimited
2. Because you can can can - Fatboy Slim
.
.
.
1. Schumacher - DJ Visage

There you have it. I know there might be more songs out there that I have not heard but this is my list for now.
Hope you enjoy these and happy working out!!

My new techie blog

Hello Everyone!!

I have created another blog. This will be the techie me and is aptly named CoolTechGirl. I will be posting any ideas, solutions or cool techie stuff I find, on this blog. I am currently working with VB.NET and learning ASP.NET in C#, so I am sure I will come across lots of issues. Hope this helps anyone who has a hard time searching through user groups. Most of my solutions may still come from there, but I am hoping to consolidate them into this one space. Plus, keeping a log of it allows me to remember it rather than just get wiped out from my memory after its use.
Do visit http://cooltechgirl.blogspot.com.
Happy Teching!!