Of late, I have been following a couple of web-logs regurarly. One is Plumb Tuckered. The girl seems my age. Her posts are pretty interesting and almost always accompanied by a picture that describes the subject of her post. She does have interesting things happening to her and its just fun to read.
The second is a very famous one by Gaurav Sabnis - Vantage Point. This guy does post a lot and is very well known in the Indian blogosphere. I like his space because it has posts on all issues. Kinda like me, Gaurav generally writes on anything he feels strongly about. His interests seem varied.
I do need to follow a couple of more blogs mentioned by him.
Let me know if you have any suggestions on good ones to follow on regular basis. (Besides the obvious ones).
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
My King Kong Review
I went to see King Kong over the weekend. It may a bit late but here's my review of it. The movie itself is well made with great special effects but that's about the only good thing I have to say. The story is nothing great or original as most of you may know. The adventure undertaken is very interesting. But when the cast lands on "Skull Island", they are faced with gigantic, enormous sized creatures. Every creature that your imagination can conjure up has been put into a 30-50 minute ordeal on the actors as well as the audience. I am not sure how this is a PG-13 movie with such horrific scenes. The scenes with all these creatures from dinousers to gigantic spiders to octopus type creatures that can suck you up, keep coming at you one after the other. This gets fairly tiring on the viewer offering no space to breathe.
Secondly, the movie is way too long. Over 3 hours for a weird love story seems kind of overstretched. The last part when King Kong lands in New York and runs around creating chaos and then finds Anne has been stretched way too much. So many times, the two just keep looking at each other. My heart didn't even ache for them unlike reviews that say this is a tear jerking movie.
Like they, anything is moderation is never bad for you. King Kong definately needs some moderation.
Secondly, the movie is way too long. Over 3 hours for a weird love story seems kind of overstretched. The last part when King Kong lands in New York and runs around creating chaos and then finds Anne has been stretched way too much. So many times, the two just keep looking at each other. My heart didn't even ache for them unlike reviews that say this is a tear jerking movie.
Like they, anything is moderation is never bad for you. King Kong definately needs some moderation.
Green card retrogression issue
What is it? I am sure many of us are still confused about this new ruling that has come out. How are we affected by this? To tell you the truth, all of us from India and China who are on H1-B visas and were hoping to apply for a green card are affected in a huge way unless a major reform comes along.
There are couple of places you can look for answers. One is http://www.isnamerica.org.
Another to check for visa bulletin updates is at the travel.state.gov.
My short understanding of this issue is that, we can all apply for the Labor certification and I-140. Once the 140 gets approved, we cannot apply for I-485/Adjustement of Status (which basically provides us with an EAD so that we then do not have to worry about our work and travel authorization) till our number becomes the current priority. What does this mean. There is a date of late 2001 as being the current priority date. This means that people who had filed before that date now have priority in the process. Each year, only a certain number of green cards are available to each country. If that number has been exhuasted, we have to wait till the next batch opens up. This means that if we apply now, there are 5 years of dates ahead of us. I don't know how big the number would be, but esitmations says that you won't be able to even file for the AOS till the next 5, 7 or even 10 years. This basically means, you can kiss the green card good bye!!
There are still ways you can keep extending your H1, but you cannot change jobs or job profiles which becoems very restrictive and can mean not having career options one would like.
I just hope all the lobbying on part of people from the affected countries and the industry in this country can help reverse this ruling and make the process easier for new applicants.
It is such an irony that all immigrants who are here legally and faihfully pay taxes to the governement are the ones who suffer the most in this process.
There are couple of places you can look for answers. One is http://www.isnamerica.org.
Another to check for visa bulletin updates is at the travel.state.gov.
My short understanding of this issue is that, we can all apply for the Labor certification and I-140. Once the 140 gets approved, we cannot apply for I-485/Adjustement of Status (which basically provides us with an EAD so that we then do not have to worry about our work and travel authorization) till our number becomes the current priority. What does this mean. There is a date of late 2001 as being the current priority date. This means that people who had filed before that date now have priority in the process. Each year, only a certain number of green cards are available to each country. If that number has been exhuasted, we have to wait till the next batch opens up. This means that if we apply now, there are 5 years of dates ahead of us. I don't know how big the number would be, but esitmations says that you won't be able to even file for the AOS till the next 5, 7 or even 10 years. This basically means, you can kiss the green card good bye!!
There are still ways you can keep extending your H1, but you cannot change jobs or job profiles which becoems very restrictive and can mean not having career options one would like.
I just hope all the lobbying on part of people from the affected countries and the industry in this country can help reverse this ruling and make the process easier for new applicants.
It is such an irony that all immigrants who are here legally and faihfully pay taxes to the governement are the ones who suffer the most in this process.
Monday, January 23, 2006
New place, New Life
Once again there has been a drought here. I simply haven't had the time. We found a new place to stay and were busy moving and setting up. There are still couple of things I have ordered that haven't yet come. I also ordered a new camera, the Canon SD 400 from Amazon since I left my previous with my sister. I have been disappointed with Amazon lately. Up until last year, the items were generally shipped the next day and one received it within a week even with free shipping. But nowadays, they don't ship the item until their shipping estimate date comes. I ordered on 15th and the shipping estimate is 23rd, so obviously they haven't even shipped it yet even though they say 'Usually ships within 24 hrs'. This has been happening since the start of 2005 and I have complained to them and they always give pseudo reasons for it.
Hey, I started a new routine with my gym. Since I have moved close to work, we now go to the gym in the morning at 6 am. So obviously I get up at 5 and have my beloved tea every morning. It helps me wake up.
Hey, I started a new routine with my gym. Since I have moved close to work, we now go to the gym in the morning at 6 am. So obviously I get up at 5 and have my beloved tea every morning. It helps me wake up.
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