Bought a new DVD player - one of the those really really inexpensive ones which play all formats on all TV’s. It is real small and cute, and has no problem in playing NTSC/PAL or whatever else you could throw at it.

Saw Lawaaris last night. Took me back to the old days with Amitabh in his prime. Prakash Mehra - the king of masala movies was at his best too, at that time. I knew a random song in the movie (‘Kaahe paise pe itna zuroor kare’), and I was quite impressed with my memories of the movie.

Loved it till I could stay awake. Had to wake up early to get to San Diego this morning. So called it a night a little after the intermission.

Next up after finishing this one - Kaalia.

Went and met my niece yesterday. After a long time. And it was fun. She has started smiling at pretty much any face you make.

I have always wanted to toss her (not literally) in the air and catch her on her way down. So I started doing that after getting the clear from the parents - you know, that it has been enough time since she ate so she won’t throw up or anything.

But believe me, she is heavy! I think she is about 18 or 19 pounds now! And I could not stop doing it! She would become as quiet as she could be as soon as you stop. And then, when you start again, she would be laughing madly. She loved it. I loved it too.

But I was tired after about 30 tosses. And after I gave her back to her dad, my arms were shaking!!! I am so out of shape! I still have some pain in my arm.

But it was fun while it lasted. At least now I know what makes her laugh :-)

This one is from E! Online.

Please watch it and let everyone else know to watch it! :-)

TV Gal mentioned American Dreams, saying it is unfair it is now moved to Wednesdays and against Lost.

Personally, I have not watched a single Lost episode and am not interested. Seems like a lot of people like it. Oh well.

I was more afraid of American Idol, but it has moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, so personally, I am all for the Wed 8pm slot.

My problem? It is time for That 70’s Show :-(

We went live with our first release in San Diego. Things are going well and this phase is winding down.

I am hoping that I can get something locally, so for a month or two, at least, I can stay at home and enjoy 2-day weekends rather than the 1-day weekends that I have been doing for 3-4 months now.

Fingers crossed.

I think it is a good movie. Of course, you have to not think at all and of course you have to totally ignore the English songs. Those look weird.

But I think the concept is not so bad. I am not sure if the US audiences will be ready to accept a Bollywood-ish flick. I hope they do, because it is for a change, a totally masala movie. Except no villain.

No, wait. There was Prem Chopra in the movie-within-a-movie. :-)

And there were slaps. So typical. And so good!

Go watch it.

We’ve had a few meetings with friends with multiple babies around and contrary to my expectations, things have been quite under control.

I kept thinking that once these guys have babies and they come along with the babies, it is going to cause commotion, confusion, etc., what with everyone being new parents and all. But no, nothing like that.

And knock on wood for that. :-)

Titans announced officially that they have hired Norm Chow as their offensive coordinator.

I still don’t think he will fit well in the NFL, but I will be more than happy if he does.

Also, it means now I will have to follow and to a certain extent even root for the Titans. I never liked them, and I wonder how I will start liking them now. Oh well.

And as for USC, I am sure they will find a suitable replacement. Or at least I desperately hope so :-)

Yay! Yay! Yay!

American Dreams is finally on in the weekday prime time schedule! In order to shuffle its programming up and make way for some premieres, NBC is moving American Dreams to 8pm Wednesdays!

A lead-in to The West Wing? That’s great! Hopefully this move will finally showcase this excellent show to mainstream public. Now the only thing is that they should run some re-runs of some of the classic episodes so people know who is who and get connected with the characters.

Fingers are crossed. Hopefully this is the big change they needed. Hopefully.

Meanwhile, check out my earlier post about the show.

I know everyone goes through these wihtdrawls every February, but what am I going to do without football - college or pro, for so many months!?

I think the Eagles were just happy to be the NFC Champions and to have made it to the Super Bowl.

McNabb’s comment kinda disturbed me - something like “How many people thought we were going to win it all?”

And McNabb’s throws - what was he smoking??

Hopefully next year they will come back strong.

“If it was Brett Favre, you would have called him a warrior. Just because it is me, you are going to call me selfish.”

Great, great comment. I have never thought of him as selfish. I have always admired his talent and his contribution to the team. Yes, he wants the ball more, but that is simply because he knows he is a difference maker. He knows he can turn the game around in one or two major plays.

So it is about time that the world realized that TO is a great athlete, unselfish (played with career on the line) and committed.

No matter what, I must say, this New England team (irrespective of the players) knows how to win. This Super Bowl they were never in doubt of winning - they were behind early in the game but still no panic. Even though they were the favorites, they were not hassled at all and they did it.

Congratulations, New England. You deserve it.

I know a lot of fans may like this defensive game, but I for one am damn bored. The defenses are good, and they are making the offenses look sad. I would rather have a shootout than a defensive battle.

Let’s hope the second half has some touchdowns. For now, on to Paul McCartney.

Looks like Jeff Fisher is talking to Norm Chow to have him come over as offensive coordinator for the Titans. I don’t know if it is a good move for Chow. I mean, he can stay and earn $500K this year and look for a college head coaching job next year. I do think that the schemes are different between college and the NFL, and he may not be as good at least in the first year or two in the NFL. So it is not going to help him get a college head coaching job.

He’d rather just stay and USC, get some more mention in the media, and get some good college head coaching position.

Its final! Just read that he has secured the drive and is the first Indian driver in Formula 1!

Now that is a good reason to follow F1 this year. You betcha I will be watching each and every race and rooting for Jordan.

I usually don’t simply put ‘forwards’. But this one was too hilarious, from http://www.drinkinggame.us

“Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States…"

The general rules of this game are no different from any other drinking game. A drink is either a shot or a good gulp from a beer (or cider). Different events call for different numbers of drinks and all you do is watch the speech and play along. If all goes well, you’ll be unconscious by the time they show the other party’s response.

GAME TIME
This year, President Bush’s State of the Union address is scheduled for Wednesday, February 2, 2005 at 9pm (Eastern). It should be broadcast on all major networks and cable news/political networks.
For online coverage, go to http://www.c-span.org/executive/stateoftheunion.asp.

Google’s performance is quite astounding: (from news.com)

Search giant Google reported on Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 101 percent year over year, exceeding analyst expectations, as revenue from advertising soared.

Net earnings for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $204 million, or 71 cents per share, on revenue of $1.03 billion. That compares with earnings of $27 million, or 10 cents per share, on revenue of $512.2 million in the same period in 2003.

Google’s income figures included a $60 million noncash, stock-based compensation charge. Without that, it would have earned 92 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call estimated it would earn 77 cents per share.

For the full year, Google reported revenue of $3.19 billion. That compares with revenue of $1.47 billion in 2003.

At the close of regular trading, when the earnings report was issued, Google shares were down $3.72 to $191.90. In after-hours trading, Google shares were up more than 16 points to $208.35.

Google said the revenue growth reflected better traffic and more advertisers believing in the value of Internet search marketing.

“Google had an exceptional quarter,” company CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “Revenues and profits increased significantly, our execution was solid across the company, and, most importantly, our relationship with our users, partners and advertisers became even stronger.”

At the end of the year, Google had cash and cash equivalents of $2.13 billion and employed 3,021 full-time staff.

The portion of revenue Google shares with its partners, or its traffic acquisition costs, was $378 million, up from $216 million in the fourth quarter of 2003

This is exciting. Guess which team is going to be my favorite this year if this deal goes through! :-)

BBC Sports Link to Jordan and Narain…

From my earlier post, it is clear that we gotta keep browsing coupons and deals not only from one store, but all stores that sell the same things. I would not have noticed the deal for Quicken Deluxe at fry’s if it was not for my constant browsing of fry’s ads.

Of course, fry’s is a little different - who can avoid browsing their ads? They are all over the Mercury News!

But more importantly, I went to Staples to get the Turbo Tax deal because of their Easy Rebates. No more paper work to be sent to them - all done online. How come they have not thought of this till now??

Wow, for the second time in my life, I was able to use the price-match guarantee. I bought Turbo Tax Deluxe from Staples and got all the free stuff that came with it - Turbo Tax State, Quicken Basic (upgraded to Deluxe) and Norton Antivirus 2005.

Quicken Deluxe was listed at $59.99 and I got a $30 rebate on it for buying it with Turbo Tax. The next day, I saw fry’s ad showing Quicken Deluxe for $49.99.

I went to Staples with the ad and they were able to confirm it and gave me the difference back. The only problem was that the rebates have now got messed up. When the applied the credit, it was as if I returned and bought new.

Now it would be perfectly ok in normal circumstances, but because I returned it and bought a new one, it makes it look like I did not buy it with the rest of the stuff. Hence, I have lost my $30 rebate.

Another round of Staples tonight, which will make it 3 in a row for me!

Watched it last night. It was actually a great movie. It was kinda simple in terms of the cast and characters, and that is what is a nice surprise in movies nowadays. No complex plot, and no complex storylines. Just a simple, well-made movie about how the life of a 50-year old changes in today’s world of corporate takeovers and 20-something CEO’s.

There were quite a few humorous moments, especially if you’ve been through an MBA school and/or know the usual corporate crap like synergy and cross-promotion.

Dennis Quaid, can’t believe he still keeps rolling. He acted well as the 50-year old. Topher Grace is ok, just because I can’t get his ‘That 70s Show’ character out of my mind when I see him. Scarlett Johansson did well to act as an 18-year old. Need to watch her Lost In Translation.

It was quite refreshing to go for that movie. It was either that or Sideways, but I think Sideways is going to be strictly video :-)

Federer is always so cool and collected. But I thought I should preserve this picture to show that he is human too.


Federer showing emotions!

Oh no! I thought Safin was going to play tonight, but this morning when I checked the news, I read about the epic match between him and Federer!

Crap. It would have been such a good match to watch. I really wanted Federer to win, but since it was Safin, I did not mind that he lost to him. Of course, on the other hand, I would love to see Roddick lose to Hewitt and make it a Safin vs Hewitt finals.

Not sure if I will see the finals, though. The time difference is really bad and makes it odd to watch it live. And of course, Davenport/Williams will be a really really boring match. No way I am going to watch it :-)

Watched the semi finals last night. It was frankly a yo-yo tennis match. There were moments where you thought it would be damn boring, and others where they played totally scintillating shots. At the end it seemed like none of them were really into it. Maybe they were tired from the heat or whatever, but it felt like they were making useless unforced errors, both of them, and especially in the final set.

Sharapova lost the match, of course, more than Serena won it. She had the match in the pocket at 5-3 in the second set and lost that set. Still, at the beginning of the third, she was up a break and lost it from there. Serena was only decent and that too, only in the third set. She did not really deserve to win.

But oh well, now we are not going to stop hearing from the American media how it was payback time and how Serena has fought back and all that stuff. But come on, anyone who watched that match should realize that on any given day, Sharapova can beat Serena.

Its only a matter of time, provided she can keep her head, before Sharapova becomes #1 and stays there for a long long time.