Jason White finally gets a chance to play in the NFL. And what luck - he is going to play under Norm Chow at Tennessee, who masterminded an offense that destroyed his last game in college football.

Another aerial banner pic - courtesy www.adsthatfly.com

The aerial banner - picture courtesy www.adsthatfly.com

I think this is a big thing, though it is not making the news as much. When India can spend that much money to send a satellite for rural and urban planning and to map the entire nation down to 8-odd feet, it is something!

Update: You can make your donation to the cause at the American Dreams Fan Club site.

Check out this press release!

Fans Flying High to Support NBC’s “American Dreams”

Los Angeles, CA – May 3, 2005 - On Wednesday, May 4, 2005, fans of the NBC drama “American Dreams” will be demonstrating their passion for the show by flying an aerial ad above NBC Studios Burbank. NBC will be deciding this week whether or not “American Dreams” will return in the fall. Fans are determined to make their voices heard regarding quality programming they can share with their families.

The coordinator of the campaign says, “I’ve had fans write to me from every demographic. A twelve year-old girl wrote to say that she watches it with her mother and grandmother. A father wrote to say it’s the one hour of television each week that his whole family enjoys together. Everyone who contacts me is distraught that the show they love may not come back next season. “American Dreams” sparks a unique passion in viewers. People who have never thought to write to a network to save a show have been writing, calling, and emailing NBC about this show. Watching “American Dreams” is not a passive experience, it makes people connect- both with the show and with each other.”

According to our government, Americans want to return to morals and values. According to the FCC, viewers want programming that is appropriate for the whole family. NBC achieves both of these goals with “American Dreams.” We think quality family programming is worth fighting for, and we hope you will help us.

Our aerial banner will be flying over NBC Studios Burbank, at 3000 West Alameda Ave. Burbank, CA 91523. It will fly for one hour beginning at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4, 2005.

It ain’t over till it’s over, baby!

I know we tend to ignore all West Indians besides Lara, but this Chris Gayle is just something special! He scores big, scores fast and puts a price on his wicket every time. Awesome power at the top of the order for West Indians.

Now, if only the team were more consistent in the batting. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I love the team, and I feel sorry for the pathetic state that they always end up in, for one reason or the other.

There was a lot of controversy about this film in India. The release was blocked by the courts, and I am not sure exactly why, but after seeing it, I realized that it could be a problem.

Saw it in the San Francisco International Film Festival at UC Berkeley. The film is hard-hitting, graphic, realistic and scary.

The only thing I didn’t like much is that the timeline kept flipping and flopping. If it were documented as a series of events, even if there was something happening in parallel, it would have been a little more logical. Or on the other hand, if the film was made with respect to certain characters and their timelines, it would have been a little more logical. But other than that, the film is well-made, and quite good.

I am sure if this got released today, it could open up some wounds of the past and possibly create more trouble than needed.

But hats off to Bombay for getting out of such a large mess in absolutely no time, and slapping the terrorists in their faces by not letting the blasts cripple the economy. Bombayites are much stronger than that, and it has been proved time and time again.

Knock on wood.

Am trying to migrate the stuff on my desktop to a laptop. Its not as easy as it seems.

I was able to transfer stuff (“data”) from the desktop to the laptop, but all the application-related settings, I don’t even know where the stuff is. For example I was not able to migrate Trillian settings, easily. The profiles folder was easy, but to let trillian know that the profile folder is at a particular location, was not easy at all.

After a lot of kludgy moves, I think the laptop is ready for prime time usage. I think. Still feel a little uneasy blowing up the desktop, making it ready for sale. But you gotta do what you gotta do and I am going to do it.

The time has come to drop dish network. Not by choice, but because we don’t receive all the satellite signals. Going with comcast since they give $25 off every month to dish customers :-)

Let’s see how they are and what they offer.

Not that it is news, but looks like American Dreams may be dropped this season. Nothing’s official yet, and one good thing I heard was that the creator of the show, Jonathan Prince has said that if NBC drops the show, he may actually consider selling it to other networks. So there is a slim chance that we’ll see the show, though on some other network.

I have always been an NBC fan but I am not sure what the head honchos are thinking about this show…there are so many ways to portray it and promote it, but they just don’t seem to care. Followers, not leaders. What a change from about 5 years ago in the days of Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier and the like.

Saw the clip from her website Aish Forever. She has gotten much better over time. She was pretty bad in 60 Minutes, improved in The Letterman Show and here she was pretty good, actually.

She even made Oprah wear a sari! And in fact, she put it on for her (duh!)! Pretty cool. I think it was one of the better interviews she’s had and coming on Oprah, she has now beein initiated into the American households much more than the earlier stuff.

Here’s wishing her good luck in all she does or has plans to do!

A long long time ago, I had proclaimed the end of winter, and beginning of the best part of the year - spring and summer.

I jinxed it. Big time. It has been continuously raining since then. Off and on, of course. But still, I cannot plan a barbeque, I cannot plan a picnic. Nothing.

Hope this ‘reverse jinx’ helps :-)

Is it OS ‘ex’ or OS ‘ten’? I am not so Mac-savvy, so I am not sure. But I want to make sure that I don’t make a fool of myself by saying the wrong thing.

With Tiger releasing this week, I am sure there is going to be a lot of talk about Mac, Apple, iPod, iTunes, i-everything and OS X.

NBC’s show The Office had a pretty short run. Not sure if that was the original plan, or if it was ‘cut’ short. Haven’t bothered to figure it out.

I saw the first episode, but not with much interest, and it did not seem that funny. But for the past three episodes, I started watching the show more carefully and it was actually very very funny.

I love the sarcasm shown in the show and the unabashed political incorrectness that the boss shows to his employees. It was actually turning out to be a great show to watch, when suddenly it was the season finale!

Didn’t it just start?

The past weekend, the wife and I were driving around a not-so-familiar area, and I felt like having a Starbucks. How difficult is it to find a Starbucks? Anywhere.

So we took an exit which we thought was a sureshot and went up the street and could not find one for a few blocks. Then we went the other way for a few blocks and could not find one.

By this time, I was determined to find a Starbucks, we hopped back on the freeway and took the next exit. My determination was construed to be addiction by the wife. I denied the allegation at the time.

But that made me think - was I desperate to get the White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks, or was I just desperate to find a Starbucks, which is supposed to be within range no matter where you are?

After some thinking, I realized that it was more of the latter. So no, I am not an addict. Neither of coffee, nor of Starbucks as such.

Though I would love to get a nice warm cup of white mocha right now. Maybe after lunch :-)

I know I have been harping about this for quite some time, but there is one more favor I need to ask you. Please take a look at the Save American Dreams website and note the latest (and probably the last) attempt to save the show.

This is a postcard writing event, where you just need to send post cards to:

Kevin Reilly
President, NBC Entertainment
3000 W. Alameda Avenue
Burbank, CA 91523

You can go the post office and get pre-stamped post cards for 25 cents, I think. Send as many as you can. Send it for your family members, for friends, for family, etc. I know I am going to send about 20 of them myself.

Please join me in this last attempt to save the show, and as it is said, to Keep The Dream Alive.


Update (4/26/2005): I have sent 20 postcards with different names and addresses … all family members. Including the Knicks fans in the New York area - you know who you are ;-)

Recently, my internet provider, comcast had some freak outage on their servers. I was not able to check mail from Outlook, and when I went to the webmail site, I just could not log in to any portion of comcast.net.

I was sort of ok with the thing, till the point I realized that during the 4 hour down time all emails I received, had been rejected! And when I called them, they said there was no way they could retrieve it and if I was expecting any important emails, I should just request the senders to re-send the emails!

What?!?! I am responsible to inform everyone that they have to re-send the emails because my freaking internet service provider had a bad downtime? Unplanned, too!

When I asked them to be compensated, I was just told a simple fact - internet service is paid for, email is not. Email service is a freebie with comcast internet service, so there is nothing to compensate me for!

HAHAHHAHA. I was floored at the explanation.

So now I am looking for a reliable email provider who provides me a web interface (non-client interface) as well as ability to check email from POP/IMAP client. I know gmail is one option, and am seriously trying it out. Wish Yahoo offered free POP access…they seem to be the most reliable, though I have had problems with them in their early stages.

Gmail has a quirk though. If I check email from Outlook at work, I don’t get to retrieve those emails from home (different computer, different Outlook). That sucks because I regularly check mails on both work and home computers, and usually ‘download’ all messages to my home computer.

Of course I could invest some money into Yahoo Mail Plus, but I don’t like the idea of putting money into something like email. Maybe it is time to wake up.

For now, comcast it is. But active search is on for a better alternative.

Well, nothing new about it. We used to do it in the house earlier. But we were led to believe (misinformation, to a certain extent) by the City of Sunnyvale that the apartment management pays for water and that we don’t need to set up an account with the city. We called the City because earlier, in San Jose, it was the city that provided us water. Before that, in Mountain View, we did not have to pay for water.

But last week we got an invoice from a third party company that sounded like a utilities management company, handling apartment complexes. It was for hot water, cold water, sanitation, etc.

I don’t mind that, but it is just disappointing when you tune your mind to free stuff and then you get slammed for it ;-)

As we moved, I discovered that I still have my age-old Zip Drive with me. Yea, the 100MB wonder which was supposed to eliminate the floppy diskette. And that too, it is a parallel port drive!

I tried to find some buyers on craigslist, but no one touched it. No enquiries, no price negotiations.

I bought it 5+ years back for about $190 or so (on some bargain website too!). I was asking for $39, with 4 free zip disks.

No takers.

So I have decided to drop it off at a local Goodwill store. I am sure they will appreciate it more than normal buyers. If nothing else, it will have to go to Computer Recycling :-(

And so will my ‘wired’ router. I see that wireless+wired routers are now available for almost free. Who will be interested in buying my 4-port wired router for any price?

Sucks, though :-(

Was quite boring…most of the funny stuff was in the previews and maybe its a ‘group’ movie where some of the not-so-funny things can also seem funny. It was only the wife and I, so we were not impressed that much with the movie.

Wanted to go out and see The Interpreter. But a cuz chickened out at the end, so we decided to go maybe some time in the week or next weekend.

So the 49ers picked a QB as their #1 pick this year. And what’s more, they chose Utah’s Alex Smith, not Cal’s Aaron Rodgers. I am not sure why they need a QB - they have Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey and Cody Pickett. All quite young. Unless they are going to fire one or more of them. Not sure.

USC had 5 guys picked in the draft. Mike Williams and Shaun Cody went to Detroit. I am going to follow all Detroit games for sure. Not only because of Mooch, but now also because of the two SC guys. Lofa went to Seattle, and Mike Patterson went to Philly.

And Matt Cassell went to New England. Wow. I am sure Bill Bellichick has a plan for him. Matt is quite lucky to have NE pick him.

Unfortunately, Alex Holmes and Matt Grootegood were not picked. I hope they find an NFL team.

The wife and I were frantically preparing all week to host about 20 people for dinner on Friday night. Unpacking, putting stuff in its place, hiding some of the stuff that cannot be put up or taken care of, and generally setting the place up to make it ‘hostable’.

I must say, the wife did a lot more than I could. She was at home for a couple of days and she was able to do work for the whole day, whereas my contribution was only in the evenings. But all in all, ‘we’ were able to get it done.

Friday went well and we are officially ‘settled’ in this new place. I love the one-level arrangement. No need to walk down to get the paper in the morning, no need to rush up if I forget socks, nothing.

Not sure if a multi-level house is ever going to appeal now.

I was pleasantly surprised to see San Marino GP on CBS at 10am Pacific time today. I did not mind not able to see it live (I usually tape it and watch it around that time anyway), but it was good to see it on CBS.

The commentary team was trying its best to introduce the American public to F-1 terms and conditions. They explained what understeer is and what oversteer is, they explained the conditions in place this year (engines need to last 2 race weekends, for example), they explained how the 15K-19K rpm compares with a street car ;-)

I am ok with the ‘beginner’ commentary, as long as the sport gets more acceptance in this country and we see more programs and more live coverage on main channels so I don’t have to end up paying more for Speed channel.

CBS is going to telecast 3 more races this year, and those 3 don’t include the Indy GP. Wonder if abc is going to cover it. That would mean 5 races of the season will be on network TV. Cool!

This weekend’s race (Imola) was one of the most exciting I have seen in a long long time. I am a Schumacher fan and am glad that the Ferrari team has made the car quite competitive. The last 10 or so laps in this race made me decide that no matter what, I am going to watch each and every race this season.

Last year, I sort of gave up after about halfway. Not this season. Even if the championship gets decided, I think there is enough incentive for all the drivers to keep competing. Some are playing for pride (Schumacher, Barrichello), some for prestige (Trulli, Ralfie), some for impending greatness (Alonso), some for their career (DC, Vill)…a lot of storylines.

This race proved that a slight mistake in qualifying can cost someone the race. Schuey, in trying to go for pole, slipped a bit in the morning qualifying, ended up losing a few seconds, and went from what could have been P2 or P3 on the grid, to P13! From 13th, to finish 2nd was simply amazing. And he could have been the winner, but Alonso is just a special driver. He was able to close the door quite a few times in the last few laps, to deny P1 to Schuey.

Good luck, Schuey for the next few races!

Since I have been so disinterested in the NBA this year, I did not realize that the playoffs are here.

Some of the matchups are quite interesting, but some of them are going to be boring.

Some good ones:

1. Houston-Dallas: This is going to be a cracker of a series. Dallas always ends up being #5 or #6 and ends up playing a team pretty close to them. And I have a feeling Houston will win this one and Dallas will be disappointed once again.

2. Seattle-Sacramento: Even though I don’t think Sacramento is solid, I think this series will be quite interesting. Seattle has been playing well since the beginning of the season and have a chance to go deep this time. Sacramento on the other hand is quite an emotional team, and they did not finish the season quite well, so they are low on confidence somewhat. I think Seattle will win this one.

3. San Antonio-Denver: Denver was streaking towards the end of the season, and Duncan has just come back from injury. If San Antonio naps for a bit, they may see themselves deep in a hole in this series and that hole may be tough to overcome. I think San Antonio will win it, but if there has to be an upset, this one may just spring one.

By the way, once again, even without the Lakers, the exciting matchups are still in the Western Conference.

Some pretty boring matchups:

1. Chicago-Washington: Huh?

2. Boston-Indiana: I think this is because I have not seen either of the teams much, but I have absolutely no interest in this series. Who cares who wins? They are going to lose the next series.

3. Detroit-Philadelphia: This may actually go to 6 games, maybe. But still, you cannot bet any money on the 76ers. Detroit has just too much firepower to lose a 7-game series.

4. Miami-New Jersey: Miami, even without Shaq (or a less than 100% Shaq) will win this one easily. So New Jersey’s bad luck in the playoffs continues. They should just be happy that they made it.

5. Phoenix-Memphis: Memphis should consider themselves lucky that they made it to the playoffs. Phoenix is too strong here and they will win it.

What is going to be interesting is the next round. Will write more when the matchups are decided.