I am officially tired of all the Presidential campaigning and all the related bombardment across all media. Just like I did not want to have Olympics stuffed down my throat, I don’t want this Presidential campaign stuffed down my throat.

Get it over with already and tell me who won!

So I ranted about my coworkers making me feel like a driver. It looks like it was a genuine lapse because since then, there have been no such issues. I have driven all the time with them, and one of them has been in the front.

Phew!

I picked up two of my co-workers today from the airport. They are from Russia and Ukraine. It was damn weird because they both sat at the back after putting their bags in the trunk.

Where I come from and where I am currently (India and the US), I have not seen that happening before. I felt like a driver.

In fact, Curb Your Enthusiasm, the hit show on HBO by Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) devoted a part of an episode to that. Ben Stiller did not like it at all when Larry decided to stay at the back after they dropped off Ben’s wife. And that was only a 5-minute drive. My drive today from the airport to the office was about 25 minutes.

And its not like it has not happeneded before with these guys. I have pointed it out to them earlier, and they still did it, and later apologized for not caring about me.

I felt a little bad, but I said to myself, what the heck. It is not something to be worried about much, because there are tons of other things that I need to be worried about.

Just thought I’d air this one out :-)

The over hyped, overrated Favre had three INT’s and the Titans pounded the Packers on Monday Night Football.

I hope Green Bay gets no more prime time games next year. They don’t deserve it. And Al Michaels, John Madden - please give up on the Green Bay/Brett Favre hype. It’s over.

Favre should retire when there are at least some people who talk good about him. Now I know that the Packers have very little depth on the QB position, but that does not mean this guy shows up for the game and loses it so badly.

McNair has been hurt all season and even last year, but he’s got not even 10% of the hype that Favre’s got all this year and the last.

Blame India Watch is a nice new blog I happended to stumble across. A lot of passionate stuff being talked about India and why the illiterates in this country called USA are not able to understand economics.

Sunday dinner was at Chaat Cafe. As usual, I had the Paneer Wrap. It was delicious! I actually wanted the Paneer Makhani dinner, but they were sold out of it.

But I was quite full and very satisfied, so it was alright! Met with some other friends who I have not had a chance to meet since we started this project in San Diego, and one of them is going to have a baby any time. So wanted to meet them before they disappear for a while.

Good fun, and a good end to the weekend. Unfortunately though, it was the end of the weekend.

So while we were taking care of some boring chores, we also caught up on the recorded TV shows that I had missed during the week.

I am amazed at how good American Dreams is, and baffled when I see the ratings. Someone at NBC is not doing their job of promoting this show well enough. It has rich writing, good acting and the setting is perfect for a comparison with what is going on in the US today. The backdrop in the show is Vietnam, and we have Iraq right now.

The issues are similar too - like stopping war being considered ‘commie’, soldiers getting a ‘killer’ mentality and not feeling well doing ‘normal’ stuff, etc.

It is a great show, and if you read this and are not watching it, please watch it and pass this message along to anyone else you know. It is on at 8pm every Sunday night.

The family, just in case you want a quick intro:

Jack Pryor and Helen Pryor - parents of JJ, Meg, Patty and Will.

Jack owns a Radio/TV store and is going to run for City Council in Philly.

Helen works at a travel agency - there was quite a stir in the family that they showed in the previous season, when Helen decides to start working. It was considered almost like an insult to Jack, but he understood and let her work.

Patty is the chirpy younger daughter, who is shown to be oversmart and over achieving.

Meg is the so-called feature of the show (it was going to be called Miss American Pie), and is in the junior year of high school and is against the war and has her own thoughts which almost always collide with her dad’s. Last season she went out with a guy from U. Penn., and was heart-broken. Now, she is campaigning to end the war.

Will is the youngest kid, and has polio. Last season, they had an operation done on his leg which apparently will let him walk without crutches. He is the innocent one in the family, and is in total awe of his brother JJ.

JJ, the eldest kid, worked hard, but after getting rejected from Notre Dame on a football scholarship for lying about a previous injury, he decided to quit college and join the Marines. He was then shipped to Vietnam and is shown there since the last season.

Roxanne, Meg’s rebellious best friend is a great character shown as a carefree kid with divorced parents who spends more time at the Pryors' than her own family. She gives ‘boy advice’ to everyone and is even shown smoking in the rest rooms in the Catholic school that they are shown going to.

Beth is JJ’s ex-girlfriend and they have had their breakups and reunions, but currently they are broken up. But the twist is that she is having his baby and that is another big thing in that era. To be having a baby without marrying the guy. She split with JJ because JJ did not want to come back when he could have, at the end of his tour of duty.

There is also Henry, who works with Jack Pryor in the store and is now a partner (another set of issues - race and the glass ceiling issue). Henry’s son Sam is a smart kid with athletic abilities and is Meg’s good friend. They almost showed a romance between them, but stopped short of it. But he believes in similar principles as Meg, and as a result they end up spending a lot of time together for similar interests like listening to records at the booth in the record store.

Henry’s wife died of cancer last season, and now he is shown supporting his two kids - Sam and Angela.

I hope you read all the way up to here, and I also hope that this gives you enough of a background to start seeing the show. Please pass this message along to as many people as you know.

Also check out http://www.nbc.com/American_Dreams

Met with two friends and their wives on Sunday morning for brunch at Hobees. As usual, the breakfast was good. And the coffee cake - yum!

Had a good time with the guys, and one took off to go back home to Laguna, and the other, from the Sacramento area, decided to spend the Sunday morning/afternoon in Santa Cruz.

Good for them, because we went back home and had some chores to get done :-(

Went to a church wedding on Saturday. It was my first time. It was so different from the other weddings I have been to - Indian weddings with a lot of noise and of course, a lot of people.

This one was quiet, peaceful and with about 150 people. Indian weddings would have 150 people just in the family on one side! :-)

The ceremony was over relatively quickly, about 40 minutes, and it was quite nice to see that the groom (my buddy from USC) was quite composed and did not show any nerves. The lady who sang a couple of songs had an incredible voice, and the readings that the bride and the groom chose, were quite good too.

After the wedding, we headed out to the hotel where the reception was hosted. The sit-down dinner and dancing, I have seen before. It is now quite common to see such receptions at Indian weddings in the US. Not that I have been to many such weddings, but I have heard and its similar.

Met up with some good friends from USC, and had a good time chatting with them. Two of my friends (one was my roommate) were groomsmen, so they were busy with the ushering and stuff during the ceremony as well as the reception. Of course, when it was time for dinner, they sat at their assigned tables.

The wedding was at 5pm, and we were asked to be there by 4.30pm. I am not sure if the Americans go by ‘auspiscious time’ and stuff (mahurat) but everything started promptly on time, and got over as per the program given to us. The reception went on till at least 11pm, when we left.

We decided to meet with some of the friends the next day, for brunch near our house, at Hobee’s.

Oklahoma closes in even more, but USC survives another week at #1. I almost think that it may be better to be #2 without a loss. Let them drop USC to #2, and thus take all the pressure off.

The pressure is just too much every Saturday :-)

Wow. What a game. USC beat Cal but it was heart-breaking for Cal. I think they deserved to win that game - they completely outplayed us in all departments except special teams. But on the other hand, that is what great teams are made of - stepping up when it matters the most, and winning ugly games.

The last defensive stand was impressive. I know a lot of writers have switched their #1 but between Oklahoma beating Texas 12-0 (only 12 points considering the potent offense), and USC beating a National Championship-caliber Cal 23-17, there is not much difference. I would keep USC at #1 just because they won a tough game. Remember Ohio State 2 years back? They stuck at #1 even when they kept winning dirty games against not-so-great teams.

The writers have an obvious bias against the Pac-10 and they tend to give less credit to such games, but I guess it does not really matter. If USC takes care of business every game, and stays healthy, there is nothing that can come in the way of the Rose Bowl, or maybe the National Championship even.

On the health note, Steve Smith may be out for the season. Now, that just sucks. He was just beginning to show his true talent and start threatening to be the go-to guy after Bush, but sadly, he has a fractured fibula. Damn.

Hope the rest of the crew steps up and performs. McFoy and Jarrett have even bigger responsibilities. And the tight ends are now going to be critical.

Let’s see what happens. Arizona State next. They are also unbeaten and they are also racking up points. Once again, I think USC is fortunate that this game is at home.

And after that, more tests lie ahead - Notre Dame, ucla are both doing well. It’s not going to be easy. No one said it was going to be. Good luck, and wood is knocked, and fingers are crossed.

I am finally realizing, in person, that Southwest Airlines is truly a shuttle-bus type of a service. The crowds at the Southwest gates are just like the crowds we see in the bus stations in India. People sitting on the floor in the zone lines A/B/C and reading, eating, doing whatever else. The lines start getting longer and longer as time to board approches.

And of course, Friday nights have their usual delays. Last Friday, I did not realize I had taken a later flight than usual, and the other person with me had the usual flight. The difference between the two was one hour. So I went up to the gate and asked them to put me up for standby on the earlier flight. She told me that the flight was anyway 30 minutes late, so it is not going to be of much help.

That flight, as I found out then, is actually an Phoenix-SD-San Jose flight, and if that inbound flight is delayed, this one is too. So we decided to change that flight and just go out at 7.25pm every time we go back. Which means, we reach San Jose only at 8.45pm, not 7.45pm. Bummer. Hopefully, I’ll be coming back in 4 days soon, not 5. So 1 hour here or there won’t be critical.

Anyway, I think I have finally gotten into the routine of the check-in, security, board, orange juice/ginger ale/peantus, pick up bags, take shuttle to rental car, pick up car, check in to hotel, work, come back, unpack, work, work, work, check out, fill gas, return rental, take shuttle back, check in, board, oj/ginger ale/peanuts, pick up bag and go home. It’s not so bad.

Time just seems to fly by because the week goes by with work, and the weekend goes by even quicker. There is no time to stop and relax. Hopefully 2 weeks of Christmas will be well used. I am not counting my 2 weeks vacation to go to India during Thanksgiving as relaxation, because a. Wife may not be there and b. TWO weddings to attend.

Because when I go back home, I like to spend most time with my wife and not on the computer. It is better to blog from work, or in the hotel after work. Anyway, after work there is no much to do :-)

As CEO of Halliburton, he supported lifting of sanctions on Iran, and now he supports sanctions.

Yesterday and today, we started the day at 6.30am. Yesterday we were not out of the office till 8.30pm.

I’m so glad today is a Friday. Will be leaving work at about 4.30pm. I’m knackered!

Of course, that is only according to Sagarin ratings. Check them out at USAToday.com.

What’s wrong with Rahul Dravid? For a guy of his class and consistency, it is unbelievably large number of single digit (or duck) innings of late. Of course, I am talking of one dayers mostly, since this is the first test of the year.

But still.

With 316/5 for Australia at the end of the day 1, India was in it as much as Australia was. Michael Clarke is a great find for Australia, like many others before him, and I think he is a good fit for the hole left by Steve Waugh.

He and Gilchrist were able to not only avoid giving India any early advantage, but at the end, took the game away from India. 474 is a total that ensures that Australia will not lose this match. And given the fact that it was only the second day, it almost means India will lose the match.

Oh, and then the typical (of old) Indian collapse started. Sehwag was lucky to be let off and he scored some runs, but as usual gave up his wicket when he should not have. Chopra’s career is practically over maybe after the next match. The Wall is in an unusual slump nowadays, and Laxman was taken by Warne, as the Aussies have been talking about all the time.

Ganguly was ok, but Yuvraj failed. Again. At the end, at 150/6, we are again staring at a follow on. And hence, avoiding an innings defeat is now the first goal. And that’s sad. Bhajji got a 5-for, but ultimately, it was no good at all. He should have been able to get the breakthroughs when we needed.

Now it is up to the tail to avoid the follow on and then some good bowling and hopefully a better batting performance.

Or, what seems more likely, a follow on performance, which better be improved over the first innings performance.

0-1 down in the series in 3.5 days. Much like the 2001 series.

George Bush goes to a primary school to talk about the war. After talking for a while he tells the children to go ahead and ask about anything. A little boy puts up his hand and George says: Yes, son, whats your name?
Bob.
And what is your question Bob?
Well I have three questions.
1. Why did the US invade Iraq without the support of the UN?
2.Why are you president if Al Gore got more votes than you?
3.What happened to Osama Bin Laden?

Just as he finishes his questions, the schoolbell rings and George says to the kids that they’ll continue after the break.

When the breaks over George says: -Ehm, where were we? Ah, right questions! A little girl puts up her hand. George points at her and says: what’s your name then?
Sally.
And what’s your question Sally?
Well, I have 5 questions.
1. Why did the US invade Iraqwithout the support of the UN?
2. Why are you president if Al Gore got more votes than you?
3. What happened to Osama Bin Laden?
4. Why did the school bell ring 20 minutes before it usually does?
5. Where is Bob?

So far we’ve been situated in a conference room at the client’s office. It is nice, because even though it is the two of us, we are in a closed room and we can talk about whatever we want.

But from Monday onwards, we are getting 2 cubes and an office. I will be in one of the cubes, which means:

1. Constant distraction of people walking by
2. No ‘normal voice’ talking
3. No talking
4. No random browsing :-)

Well, at least I will have a telephone extension and a pretty decent workstation. Let’s see how it is…

One of the blogs I had featured, 2 Fast 2 Furious, is closed. Shut down. Given up. Quit. Loser.

The writer did not want to divulge much about the life being lived. That’s a shame, because it was fun reading the stuff.

We will miss the writing. Hope it is revived.

SPM (earlier blog: http://rdfan.blogspot.com) has started a new blog, aimed at amateur investors in the stocks and mutual funds markets.

While more specifically focussed to the Indian stock markets, as he says there, the principles are likely to be relevant elsewhere too. If you are interested, you can follow his once-a-week articles on the new blog at http://sundaystocks.blogspot.com or you can even subscribe to his articles and get them as a weekly email, by sending a blank email
to: sundaystocks-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

And now my mailbox is wayyyyyyy beyond manageable. I need to probably spend 3-4 hours at a stretch, go through the mails, discard crap and file away unimportant stuff and get back to a manageable limit.

Its just that it is so boring to do, I would rather do it ‘later’.

Planning to attend a friend’s wedding this weekend. Luckily it is Palo Alto, so we don’t have to fly anywhere. The wedding starts at 5pm, and earlier in the day, at 12.30pm, USC is hosting Cal. One of the best games of the season!

And most of the guys attending the wedding are from USC. We hope to get together and watch the game. Should be fun!

Go USC! :-)

Beat Cal!

Time does fly over here at work. Even though we start at 7am, before we know it, it is time for lunch. And soon enough, it is 6pm and time to leave.

Not sure if my previous project was too devoid of ‘action’ or what, but there’s just so much stuff going on over here that I just cannot believe how time is passing by.

Needless to say, I have neither been able to contact the Gujju lady for homemade lunch/dinner nor been able to do anything outside of work in the evenings. The hotel has a fitness center, and because I have been missing my squash, I think I may start doing some exercise there. Sitting around like a potato all day will surely not help my fitness.

Not that it is any good at this point ;-)