Random Thoughts

I have a big TV. I have no cable (there's a story that goes with it... that I shall document later), so I was wondering what sort of over-the-air HD programming is available. Apparently, quite a bit ! Now, that doesn't mean that I would get all or even many of those because I am sure there are limitations. For one, I am in a basement and any indoor antenna is unlikely to pick up line of sight signals that easily. I'm thinking of getting an antenna and giving that a shot to see if the hype really lives up to what they say. I am no fan of the cable company out here, so I'll spend the $$$ and see if it was worthwhile. Until then, I am stuck watching very grainy NBC...

Some things really bother me. Little, meaningless things usually. But it is based on principle and it really gets me going. So what is it? Well, I happen to have a sibling. This sibling has this terrible habit of taking my stuff and use it as if it was his own. Stuff like my car, tools in the house whatever. Now, I have no problem using those things, if you return them to where they are kept. Like tools. Well, lets clarify. Don't touch my car if you have your own. If you don't have a car, take the bus or walk or bike or whatever. But not so. My dear brother uses my stuff as if it were his own and then the silly bugger, he lies about it. He also has this terrible habit of wearing my clothes and then like a dummy, taking pictures in it and posting it on facebook. For Pete's sakes man, if you're going to deny using my stuff, at least don't put the pictures up yourself! People like that make me really mad. It is as if we have one set of rules and some of us are free to...

Some of you may know that I have a recently acquired an LCD HDTV. It is a thing of beauty. I have no cable service yet because Comcast is somehow screwing me over. But that axe will be ground another day. Today, I am here to talk about NHK. How did I get to NHK? Well, lets leave that aside for a minute. What is NHK is perhaps the first question to ask. NHK is Japan's public broadcaster, a sort of BBC or CBC of Japan. So now that the what has been resolved, lets get to the why . UHDV. Ultra High Definition Video. What's that? You've heard of 1080p by now. Blu-Ray DVDs can be encoded at that resolution. 1080p is it , right? Hmm, maybe. You see, the standard 1080p on NTSC has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. That's pretty cool. Well UDHV is 7,680 × 4,320 pixels. It is 4 times taller and wider. NHK is the force behind UHDV. That's how I was led to NHK. They are hoping to start broadcasting in UHDV by 2015. By the way, they switched to digital broadcasting in 2000....

I've been thinking of Africa of late. I am not sure why. Maybe its the Akon music. He's Senegalese. Or from New Jersey, your choice. Maybe its something else. Some of you may know that many years ago, I lived in Africa. I don't have too many memories of it, but the ones that I have are good ones. I somehow stumbled upon SABC's Greatest South Africans list . One tends to forget that a rather large continent sits out there and is teeming with some truly amazing people. Its amazing how we as a world are sometimes more obsessed with the next lunatic thing Britney Spears is going to do instead of perhaps enjoying the diversity that is this planet. As I scanned down the list, I noticed some names that I can say I have the honour of knowing about. There are the obvious ones for me: Mandela, Sisulu, Tutu, Tambo, Verwoerd (yes, he's on the list). But some that are not so obvious like Gandhi, Smuts (contemporaries of each other btw), Rhodes. But they are all sons and daughte...

The last few days have been a bit different. I'm in Texas for one. I've been talking to some friends of mine... and life is interesting. One of them moved back to Vancouver recently from DC. Lucky her. She sounds more happy than anyone I know of. Another guy is out for work in Hartford, CT... and is apparently going to propose to his girlfriend in New York next week. And then head off to Thailand for work. He just came from Mexico city... where he was working insane hours. Another one hates his job and wants to move back to Vancouver for good. As for myself, I miss my family, I bounce between not hating my job too much to downright hating my job. And now my work place is so much different. Three of the people that made it more bearable are in various stages of buggering off: one's gone to a new job that he loves I think, the second one is moving on because he found a better opportunity in the company... the third one buggered off home to work from there. So, that leaves me...

So I am in Miami (see previous post, I am not done writing it up at this point in time...) and I kept getting called by this weird number from Delaware (302 area code). As a rule, I do not answer my phone when strange numbers call me. In fact, I don't usually answer my phone at all. I use it to call people... not to be called. After the third call, I answered... and it was a recorded message from Bank of America. Apparently, they wanted to check some questionable charges that were on my credit card. I couldn't make sense of the charges so I hung up, waiting to deal with it when I get back to civilisation again and in the peace of my home. My blackberry has been on the fritz of late as well. No data requests were coming in for whatever reason. This was, I have to say, quite frustrating. And freeing as well since I was away from work and no emails came through. Of course my gmail stuff gets forwarded too... and it was annoying that I couldn't get them (flight delay notices f...

I did not mean to neglect my blog for this long. I am alive, I am well, I am busy, I am tired, I am... But how are you?

I've been thinking of all the fruits I was used to as a kid in India. I have not seen most of them for a long while now. I was talking about a pomegranate I ate recently to someone and I thought I'd go about listing the fruits. So then, lets start with the pomegranate. Its a strange one alright. Did you know that the Afghans are now shipping crates of these to Vancouver and other areas? It is a bright red fruit that tastes somewhat sour but is awesome to eat. And its good for you. Then there is the creamy Sapodilla. I have never seen it in North America. Apparently the plant itself is a native of Mexico. Either those facts are incorrect or people don't eat it for whatever reason. This thing grows like wild back home and I remember having tonnes of them on dining table fruit baskets... sometimes going rotten, or over-ripe. There is the guava with its coarse flesh inside. With little seeds on the inside. Again, endemic to Mexico and yet, I have not encountered any in the Unit...

Well, maybe it is the holidays. Maybe its the fact that I just had dinner alone. Maybe it is because I am watching Virtual Users abandon with glee and spiteful disregard for my cheering them on. Whatever the case is, I do remember lots. I thought I would list a bunch of things I'd rather be doing today. I'd like to walk in the rain in Vancouver. Yes, I know the few of you that read this page think I am crazy. But I kid you not. Try it out sometime. There is something remarkably refreshing, one would almost say a soul cleansing quality, to a walk in the rain in Vancouver. I think I've come up with more good ideas and made peace with more things walking in the rain all by myself than I have at any other venue. Granted, it isn't the easiest. But it is something that I do miss. And no amount of walking in the DC rain makes up for it. For one thing, rain is a rare thing here. Secondly, it pours like crazy when it does rain here. And I am not inspired by the rain here. No of...

Why, its Christmas Eve already! A couple of things that stand out for me this year. I still don't have a TV. No this isn't a message to jolly old St. Nick telling him that I want a 50" plasma TV. I'll buy it myself. Besides, I have no chimney. The reason I put the TV bit here is to express the joy of not being bombarded by annoying Christmas advertisements. No more, jesus was born a couple of millennia ago and now you need to buy this cell phone with this amazing feature at a price that can't be beaten... no more you need to buy this car (a Japanese luxury one) so you can wrap it with these ugly bows and surprise your significant other... none of that bollocks. Why? Because I have not a TV, nor do I have a functioning radio! Just the blessed Interweb thingy. I've had to do very little if any Christmas shopping. I am staying in DC. I am spending Christmas alone. I am sure there will be many emails forwarded and sent, facebook wall postings etc on the blessed day...

A lot has been going on recently in life and the world. I've been thinking about what I am doing here and why I am here. Who am I? What is my purpose in life? What works me up into a passionate frenzy? I am no philosopher, but I've been thinking about what it is that excites me. There are plenty of things that do. Cars do. Women do. Sadly, some of the servers I get to play with (I mean a 16-core SunFire box is awesome... but for what?) excite me, politics does, seemingly useless knowledge does. Food does. Learning does. Science does. When I was young, I wanted to fly jet aircraft. Many young boys dream of that I suppose. I saw MiGs and Mirages in action on a military airfield in North India when I was 9. That was one of the most awesome nights I have had. Me, twin-engined MiGs, single-engined Mirages, darkness, afterburners, the deafening noise of the engines on that deserted runway excited me. I still love the spectacle of a military airplane. Biology excites me. I've had ...

Well, its been snowing out here. My apartment is hot. I am sitting in my shorts and a t-shirt and I am sweating lots. What's going on in my world? Well, let me give you a random sampling of stuff I can come up with. Windows Vista, so far is not that terrible. After about 2 weeks, I had to press Ctrl-Alt-Del. It looks different. Maybe I don't use it much, but it works for me. I watched a video on Iran from the American Public Broadcaster PBS's show Frontline. The idea brought on are quite interesting. Kiefer Sutherland is apparently going to prison on account of drunk driving. It is rather sad I must say when Canadians, and that too notable ones go out and do such things. I mean, think of your family man! Your grandfather, well, he is something else to most Canadians. And yer poor mother! I ate salmon today. Its not sitting well with me. Some poor MP in Ottawa was blamed of looking at scantily clad women. Turns out it was his dog! Looked like a Gordon Retriever. Heard about ...

I did something I haven't done in a very long time. I asked another employer to evaluate my skills and see if they'd like to take me on to do some interesting things. Who knows if it will come to fruition, but I took the very first step in my eventual journey back home. The wonder is that if I do get the gig, I will be working in familiar quarters, with people who I have known for a while. Familiar faces, familiar surroundings, familiar rain, familiar coffee, familiar bagpipes... One piece of me is so excited I can't wait for it to happen; another piece of me is a bit sad that my learning has been cut short and that I am leaving... I hate to walk away from a good fight as it were. Only time will tell what really comes of this little endeavour. Wish me luck.

I have a very special spot for the song that goes by this title. Bill Withers sings this. I've heard it in the movie Notting Hill. Not quite my daily cup of tea when it comes to movies. I do love the scene in the movie though; you see all the seasons in one shot... I am no real fan of movies. I find their realities stupid. Depressing sometimes. Maybe its because I started probably before I even knew what a movie was by watching various Indian movies. I still don't get why and how people watch those wretched things. I admire the ability of the folks who produce that garbage and make a lot of money on them. Many, many countries are spanned in the process of a movie. Hell, one stupid song in an Indian movie probably takes you to Australia, Switzerland and New York. Those seem to be the staple places to prance about. Anyway, I am not here writing about Bollywood. This one is personal. The song is true you know. There really is no sunshine once she's gone. I have no idea what I...

Before you get your mind out of the PG-13 frame of thinking, let me clarify... this will be a rant. When I refer to nutjobs, I refer to the noun interpretation (check urban dictionary for the verb version of it, if you really didn't get the drift) of the word nutjob. Let me also preface what I am about to say by adding a disclaimer... I do not usually write about my work that much. Its not because I don't have the urge to, it is more because it is inappropriate and I don't need to get fired. I have bills to pay... but at the risk of getting yelled at or worse, I feel the need to write about the nutjobs I have to deal with. Lets just say that my sanity is on the line and my ability to be civil is fraying away. Of late, my work has started to give me ulcers in my tummy. Don't get me wrong, its not as stressful as my Support gig in Vancouver. But it is getting to the point where I am starting to feel nostalgic for those days. Its quite scary that I am having such delusion...

I'll say it is somewhat of a strange title for a blog post, but I thought I would blog about the second wedding I have had the pleasure of attending since I moved to North America. Let me give some background by saying that the first wedding I went to was of my friend from UBC, Reza. He married a girl he met at UBC and the wedding took place, what feels like eons ago now. I believe it was on the 19th of June, 2004 that they got married. And, last I heard, they are still happily married. That was an interesting one; he's Persian, she's from Central America I believe, she's Catholic, he's Muslim. It isn't often that one gets invited to a wedding. At least that is my feel for it. I have a few friends that have been going to weddings every weekend or so for the past few months, but I think that is the exception rather than the norm... and I am sure they realise how lucky they are to be present at such an important event. My co-worker and friend Dave (and his then br...

I finally took the plunge and headed to the beach! Now, this isn't like a trip to Kits beach in Vancouver. Why? Well, for starters, the beach is two states away! Where did I go? I went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware . So that leads us to the question, how did you get there? Well, it is a simple enough story. I woke up early Saturday morning and took the metro to National Airport, rented a PT Cruiser from Avis equiped with a GPS unit and headed off to the beach. The drive to Rehoboth Beach is quite interesting. You see plenty of things along the way. Getting out of the District of Columbia seems to take for ever. The GPS unit decided that I had to head North first, then across to the North-East and then South for a bit. At some point, I join in a large highway (I think 495) and head East. Once I got out of DC and into Maryland, there was still plenty of traffic. I was surprised that it was so busy early on a Saturday. Soon enough though, you end up in parts of Maryland where time seems...

So, the Friday before I left, I met up with a few of my friends. Ivan and Tamara were there, so was Tomo and Nikola as well as Diana. We met up at Pub Med around 6:30pm (I got there around 7pm). I had invited a few more people, but many of them were either too late or didn't make it. One person missing was Voja. Now, its not normal for Voja to miss out on going to a bar. And I doubt he would miss it especially because I was leaving early the next morning. He called me at some point that day saying that he had already made plans to go hiking with Len and couldn't change it. He said we could meet up later and go for a coffee or something. I was a bit surprised, but I guess plans were made, and he had to go through with them. I was just a bit surprised that Len was that much more important than saying goodbye to a good friend... Voja calls me after 10pm and tells me that he's sorry he couldn't make it out earlier. He had just come back from hiking the grind and having win...

So, this is my first day back in the US. I left DC two weeks ago and headed home to Vancouver. I spent a wonderful couple of weeks in Vancouver working out of the office there. Lots happened while I was there. I have blogged about some of them in my previous posts. I also tend to complain a lot, so bear with me. This is my blog after all and what good would it be if I didn't let out my frustrations a little! So, lets start with my journey in: My flight was at 8:18am PDT today from Vancouver. Reasonable time right? Well, I don't like it. I woke up at 4:30am. I then stumbled about getting ready: took a shower, found my clothes etc. I woke my mum up. She has to give me a ride to the airport. We leave the house around 5:30am and I left half my coffee in the sink, unfinished. I hate wasting coffee... Somehow, I end up listening to 730 AM on the radio in the car. That has got to be the most boring station I have listened to in a while. They went in a 5 minute loop on traffic, border ...

So, what have I done since I got back? Lets see. I went for DS on Sunday last week. I ate all sorts of things that I haven't had in a while. I also met friends from work who I haven't seen. We've moved onto other things for about 10 months now, but it is always, always, always a pleasure to run into them. Perhaps it is strange to some to want to see people you work with outside of work, but perhaps this is a testament to how much we care for each other and how much we appreciate each other's company. Not all of the folks I usually socialise with while in Vancouver did make it to DS though... so I need to find another venue to meet up. Liz mentioned sushi and I think I'll go for that. After DS on Sunday, I went to Samurai to each Sushi. We got late to DS and so we didn't have our fill (well, really, we did, but the gluttons that we are..., we had to eat more things). Then we wandered around Robson (I bought a shirt for the wedding...), then went to the Cactus Clu...