Be Cool - starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Cedric the Entertainer, the Rock, etc.
Was pathetic. Except for Uma (face value), there was nothing in the movie worth watching.
Yes, I did doze off for quite some time. Means it was quite boring. In fact, it has been quite some time since I dozed off in a movie. Just goes to prove two things - haven’t been watching many movies of late, and the ones that I have been, have been good.
Will stick to cinema savers, and go watch some movies that we missed out on, earlier - Ocean’s Twelve, The Incredibles, etc.
I got a call from American Eagle Outfitters and separately, from some musicians merchandise store saying that someone had placed an order with my card, but the order was flagged as a problem order.
I have taken so much care with using my card online and all that, but it still got hacked. It must have been at some restaurant or some store. Actually, now that I think about it, recently we went to a Reebok outlet store, where for some reason, after the bill was created, we found out that there was a wrong charge. Instead of reversing the charge there and then, he actually created a return, and created a new bill. In any return process, I have to give my name, address and telephone number and since he already had my credit card, I have a feeling that it was him. He just kept the information and started (tried to) using the card in ordering merchandise left and right.
Damn! Damn! Damn!
I hate having to cancel my card and all that. It is not complicated, just too much time spent doing all that. But I guess I have to do it.
They forwarded the complaint to Cingular and I did get a call from them! Amazing all this happened in a matter of a few days.
I called Cingular back and they asked me to walk through my issue(s) and I did. Patiently, and politely. Julie, from the Executive Offices of Cingular Wireless was very good with me and apologized for the mistakes. She was able to talk to the Business End User Care representative and confirm that I was in fact entitled to discounted international dialing for free. She added it back to my account, ensured that I received credit for the previous month, and added another credit for January, which the customer service rep was not able to. She was very nice through the whole conversation and by the time the call was over, I was floored with the way it all went.
I am happy, and in fact relieved, that customer service exists in this day and age of mergers and quasi-monopolies. Even if it takes some effort to get that out of the companies (like going to the BBB). I think I will stick around with ATT for a little bit more :-)
I filed a complaint online with Better Business Bureau (http://www.bbbonline.com), and forgot about it because I never knew what happens to those complaints. I just assumed that they get collected and analyzed for others to read about.
But to my surprise, in a couple of days, I received an email from them saying that they had forwarded the case to AT&T Wireless and they had assigned me a case number!
Wow, so someone does something with those complaints? Unbelievable.
In fact, a day later, I received a voice mail from the Executive Offices at Cingular Wireless (formerly AT&T Wireless), asking me to call them back and discuss the issue.
I am happy that I am with a company that somehow does respond to customer complaints. More about what happened to the actual case, in another post. :-)
Whining is more like it. As if three days of match practice is going to make or break anything. As if the conditions in India are drastically different from the conditions back home.
Come on, guys. Just play and try to win. Of course, I don’t agree with Shiv Sena’s threat to boycott/sabotage some games. That is utter nonsense. The government has allowed the team to come, and once that happens, just let them play, let the crowds enjoy the game without being anxious about what is going to happen in the stands, or on the pitch.
We went there and had a fabulous time. It is time we reciprocated. Otherwise, the ‘burden’ of having had a great hospitality and not having returned the favor will forever stay with us.
Please let the tour go on, and please welcome the team with open arms.
About the political differences, that’s a different story altogether.
I think the Australian GP was a welcome start to the Formula One season. The qualifying format has changed now and the pole position goes to the driver with the lowest aggregate times from Saturday and Sunday. This move makes it more interesting to follow the qualifying portions, and also makes it possible for lesser known teams and drivers to bubble up the order.
Narain Karthikeyan was average, but considering that it was his first F-1 race ever, I think he did well to finish the race. I was telling someone, if he has less than 5 DNF’s this season, he will be good. Hopefully he’ll do better than just finishing a race. Maybe he’ll get some points.
I love this Renault team. I have said before the season began and even last season, that Renault is well-placed. They had some bad engine failures at critical points last season, otherwise they would have done better overall. They shouldn’t have dropped Trulli, but in any case, Fisichella is not a bad substitute. I used to like Fisichella from his Benetton days. And Fisi/Alonso is a good combination. I feel Toyotas are going to do well this year too, with Ralf and Trulli.
As for Schumey, well, sad. He did not get out early and that was a tactical mistake of the Ferrari team, on Saturday. As a result his first time was pathetic. Nothing he could do on Sunday to make it better. Plus, dammit Heidfeld. He bumped into Schumey and caused failure on his car. Smart move on Ferrari’s part to not finish the race, because as the commentators were saying, now they are allowed to change the engine because he went more than 50% of the race and did not compelete it. In all other circumstances, teams are not allowed to change engines for 2 races in a row!
Anyway, I think the rule changes (tires cannot be changed for an entire race weekend) are going to make this year’s championship difficult and even though we may not see a true 2 or 3 driver-rivalry, it will at least make the season less monotonous.
Yes, you heard me. I will stop looking at the Lakers scores this year now. They lost to the Knicks today! The Knicks? Are you kidding me? The last place in the Atlantic Division. And lost after some major effort in the final seconds of regulation, by the Lakers, forcing an overtime.
My friend who hates the Lakers has openly told me that he is rooting for the Lakers to not qualify for the playoffs, and certainly it looks like he is going to have the last laugh. I kept saying no, they will qualify but after this showing, I have lost all hope.
The thing is, who is my favorite then? I don’t know. Not Detroit, though I think they have the best chance to win it all again.
I think I will go with Miami. Feels awkward to make an Eastern Conference team my favorite. But what can I say - Shaq’s the man, even though he is not playing right now.
His ‘not bashing’ of Bush was hilarious, with the Gap $70 trillion deficit and Banana Republic ‘war’ stuff.
Also, about stars and wannabe stars. So true about ‘If Tom Cruise is not available, don’t settle for Jude Law’ :-)
Overall, the Oscars were kinda boring. Not sure how I got hooked on to the Grammys and the Oscars this year. I usually don’t care much about either. MTV Awards are better because they are more informal and they try to make it more scandalous.
I used to have ATT individual account for a few years. I switched to business account because I worked at a company which had some special deals with ATT Wireless. I got two benefits - discounted plan fees, and free discounted international dialing. Additionally as a one-month promotion, I got mmode data plan free. At the end of the one month I cancelled my data plan. This was in September 2004.
Now, I do not go through my bills in detail if the amount is approximately what I expect. But this month I noticed that the bill was unusually high, and one of the high charges were from international calling - I was charged 85 cents/min to India, when the discounted rate is supposed to be 32 cents/min.
I called the 800# and the first customer service rep (Sara Rothwell) told me that my international plan was removed along with the data plan and that now if I want to add it back it will be at $3.99/month for discounted international dialing. I was not happy about three things here: 1. Plan was apparently promotional (discounted int’l dial) and I was not told that clearly 2. Plan was removed without informing me at the time of removal 3. I was charged a high rate and then when the situation was recognized, I was told that it cannot be restored without charging the monthly fee
I was bounced to a resolution specialist (Natalie Duke) who was very curt and asked me to take it or leave it. At the end, I did not sign up for the plan and hoped that at least the charges since September would get reversed. The explanation given was that I have to go through each bill line-by-line every month, to note any changes from the previous month. Are you kidding me???
Bills are now in 9 or 10 page range and I have no time to go through all the details, I explained. She said that all notifications are sent through invoice and that it is not ATT’s fault that they did not inform me about that international plan change.
I think it is ridiculous on their part to remove something I did not request for removal. And then it is also customer unfriendly to not restore the services as they existed before the ‘removal’. And now that there are fewer players in the market with all the mega mergers happening, I have no choice really. And of course, there is the dreaded contract period. I asked her about that too - I wanted to cancel right away, but since I was months away from the end of my contract period, I was told it would cost me $175/line (my wife’s and mine)!
I hope this posting will help other customers realize how bad AT&T Wireless (Cingular) is. And you know what, I think it is because of Cingular. I had them before and I use to hate them and was so happy to have gotten rid of them, and now it has come back to haunt me. Can’t wait for this contract to end.
What has Kaif done wrong? He has not flopped for a long long time, and Yuvraj has not really shone like a star. Yet, Kaif is out of the first test team and Yuvraj is in.
I pulled into a gas station today, and saw the guy walk out with some blue stuff in his hands. As I started doing the prep for filling the gas, I noticed that he had changed the price of the gas - it went up by 6 cents/gallon.
I quickly did what I had to do and heaved a sigh of relief when I realized I got the lower price. Didn’t know such things could excite me much, after all it was a 6 cents/gallon difference. If I filled 10 gallons, it would be 60 cents.
Still, I felt happy that I got the lower price :-)
Lists all the stuff we can all do to save this excellent excellent show. Please go ahead and pass this information to anyone and everyone you know. And please carry out any or all of these :-)
So we finally left at about 3.30pm, picked up lunch from a local Deli and ate it in the car itself. And we were on our way only at 4pm.
We made it not-so-fast because 101 was jam packed. At least until we passed Morgan Hill/Gilroy area. And then we were truly on our way.
We reached at about 7.30pm and checked in to the hotel. The room was cute, and there were truly three different beds (as opposed to two beds and a pullout sofa). The hotel had a lot of nice amenities but first of all we reached late and it was dark, and second of all, it was wet and rainy, so we could not really enjoy the amenities like putting green, badminton court, pool, etc.
We rested for a bit and headed out to the local entertainment scene. We wanted to chill for a bit and then go for some dinner. We went to what the hotel receptionist said was the life of Pismo, Harry’s Bar and Nightclub. It was not bad, but it just felt like some other country. People there seemed to know each other and looked like they were all regulars. So we hung out there for a little bit and then headed out for some dinner. It was about 9.45pm and we were shocked to see most of the places were shut!
Being a beach town, the highlight of most restaurants was sea food, so our best bet for getting veggie choice was only Italian. So we found a couple of them, called and found that one of them was open till 10 and rushed to the place.
Don’t know why, but the place was already closed down. Ended up going to a regular American place opposite. The food was not bad. We liked it, stuffed ourselves and headed to the hotel. We chatted for a bit and decided to leave a little early to ride some ATV’s (all terrain vehicles) at the local sand dunes. And then maybe go to Hearst Castle if we can get reservations on the tour.
So next morning we woke up, got ready and went to breakfast. There we also called and checked if we could get ATV’s for rent. We were told yes, so we went to the beach and signed up for the ATV’s. It was cold and cloudy and yet, none of us raised that as a potential problem! We were all so pumped up to do it. By the time we got on to the ATV’s, it was raining and the sand was of course wet. But we stuck on and had a fanstastic time riding it. It took about 15-20 minutes to get used to it and from then it was just too much fun.
I was able to do two ‘wheelies’ jumping off a small dune! I felt so good especially with the second one, because it was a high and long one. What a rush!
Went back to the hotel, showered and got ready to go to Hearst Castle. We got bookings for the 3.20pm tour and it was about 60-90 minutes drive so we had a deadline to meet. Picked up pizza for lunch and went to Hearst Castle.
Driving to Hearst Castle, we were able to do one more thing - drive on route 1 - Pacific Coast Highway. It was beautiful because for some time, the sun actually came out, and the colors of the Pacific Ocean were just brilliant. We actually got tired of seeing the green hills with so much fog at the top of the hill. It was beyond beautiful.
Hearst Castle tour was frankly speaking ok. It was raining and windy. It was cold. The castle was ok. I think it is a little bit overrated. But then I feel the same way about most ‘buildings’. Sad that the wife has exact opposite feelings :-) She was amazed with the tiles, to which my comment was ‘They are blue and brown, so what is so special?’ But it was worth going there and seeing it at least once.
And from there we headed home. In the middle, I drove what has to be the most dangerous 15-mile stretch I have ever driven in my life. It was absolutely dark highway (highway 46 between 1 and 101), dense fog, rain and a single lane highway, with possibly a deep cliff on the side. I don’t know how I made it but it was totally exciting. Thank goodness (BIG thanks) for the reflectors in the middle of the road, on the yellow lines. If not for them, I would have had to pull over and let the fog disappear, because there was no way to drive without those markers to guide me. And luckily for me, there was another car on the back with fog lamps (we didn’t have fog lamps) so we felt some company or else it would have been a great scene for a horror movie. And guess what was being discussed in the car at that time - ghost stories from childhood! :-)
Anyway, came to Sunnyvale, had dinner at Ghazal and returned the car and ended the vacation there. The weekend is not yet over, at least not for me. I plan to relax on Monday and get ready for some local work from next week onwards.
Thursday night, I met up with a dear friend of mine from school. He used to live 2 buildings away from me, so we grew up together too. There are two other close school friends of mine who live close by to me now, and this other friend was visiting us from Hong Kong and was available only for one night.
The funny thing is that none of us (locals) thought it was cool to bring our wives along. It was kinda mutual and we decided to just have a boys' night out. Didn’t actually turn out to be what it sounds like. Just met for dinner, had a drink or two, but most importantly, chatted so much about our times in school.
My friend is doing very well for himself in Hong Kong. And so have most of our friends in the group. Most of them are outside India now. Some in Dubai, some in New York, some in Washington DC, etc. But some of my friends who I thought were truly good-for-nothing, have turned out quite alright for themselves now. I felt good to hear that. I really need to make a trip to New York and meet with some of the guys there. Would be fun to catch up.
Here comes the really long weekend. I took Friday off to go to Pismo beach with some cousins. And Monday is a holiday anyway - Presidents Day.
It felt so weird on Thursday evening because I kept thinking it was Friday. Talking to people, I kept telling everyone ‘have a good weekend’, etc. on Thursday and they were not sure what I was thinking.
Anyway, instead of leaving early morning, we are going to leave in the afternoon. But we picked up the rental car, a sad minivan. Sad because the last time we rented a minivan, it was Nissan Quest, which was so cool. This one was a Dodge Caravan and it was so tiny!
The plan is to leave by 2pm so that we can make it there by 5.30-6. Pismo, here we come!
Went to a Thai place (Spices Thai - must visit if you are in the San Diego area) for dinner and for a change, ordered the Spices Veggie Salad. The tofu in it was awesome - fried to the point that it was almost crunchy. Never had it that way. But in general it was just too much effort to eat it.
Reminded myself why I never order or eat salads. Why make so much effort to eat your food? Just rice and curry would be perfect - mix the two and start eating! :-)
I am not a big fan of ‘days’ - and certainly I was not looking forward to another Hallmark day - Valentine’s Day. Luckily for me, the wife thinks the same way.
We decided not to go out because on this day, the restaurants overprice their meals and it is so damn crowded, it takes the fun out of going out. Instead we had a take out pizza dinner (Cicero’s - yumm - http://www.cicerospizza.com) and watched a Hindi flick - Lawaaris. Amitabh at his best. It was fun! Of course, we were both quite sleepy so we were not able to finish the movie. But it was fun nevertheless.
