For beating LSU.

What a strange race it was over the weekend. I saw the qualifying and was so excited to see the start of the race … with Button (the rabbit) up front followed by the 2 Renaults and then the 2 McLarens. I was imagining the starts that Alonso has had and could see that he would be able to get by Button easily, but my only concern was whether he and Fisi would have an issue or not. Of course, throw in an aggressive Montoya and a fast Kimi and you have the best anticipated start in quite a while.

But the strangeness of the race started in the formation lap itself. JPM spun trying to get his tires warmed up, and if not for Fisi’s aborted start, JPM could have struggled to make it to his position. In any case because of Fisi’s abort, there was a new formation lap and more importantly, Alonso got a thorn out of his way of getting by Button.

The start was exciting and as expected, Alonso went by Button. The two McLarens were at it against each other and fortunately they were both ok. But as soon as Alonso went by Button he opened up a huge gap between him and the rest of the field. He gained 2.7 seconds in the first lap itself!

By this time there was enough excitement caused by people bumping each other in the middle and at the back. Christian Klein I think is an idiot. In the last race he took Kimi out, and this time he caused more trouble and I think he even caused Massa’s accident by trying to squeeze between another car and Rosberg’s car.

In any case, the pitstop exchanges did not cause much change in the order, but 4 safety car periods made the race interesting enough for me because the gap between Alonso and Kimi kept getting cut down.

In the end, the song remained the same. Alonso winning it with a lot of time to spare. This guy is just too good. He’s got the racing skills, and has the mind of a top racing driver. He seems unstoppable and with the way he and Renault are going, I would be surprised if he does not win the championship this year.

Even though I think The OC has gone from bad to worse of late, I liked the part in tonight’s show where Kirsten takes Seth to her AA meeting and the best part was her little speech at the end of the meeting.

Quite touching.

How important was that dropped catch by Raina?

From Cricinfo (I happened to watch it live while I was on a conference call!):

20.1 Powar to Pietersen, 2 runs, dropped! Pietersen comes down the track looking to clear the midwicket fence but the shot is not timed well enough and the ball flies down to deep midwicket, Raina moves across quick in the deep and drives across well but fails to hold to a fairly hard chance, that’s a costly miss!

I tried the new beta of the Yahoo Messenger with Voice 2 nights back. It offers a Phone Out feature which lets me call a regular telephone number from my computer, which is what I was impressed with. The quality was clear and the other party was able to hear me quite alright too.

There is also a Phone In feature where you get assigned a telephone number so people can call you at a number as opposed to your computer only. I did not try that and I am not truly interested in it much.

And best of all, Voice Mail is free! So if I am offline, someone can leave me a voice mail, just like their offline message (text) capability.

I also uninstalled Skype at the same time. I do not need so many clients on my computer. As it is, I have friends and family spread over Yahoo, MSN and AIM. Now I have Skype ID’s to remember and maintain. I won’t be doing that. Since Yahoo and MSN have a partnership, Yahoo claims that soon we will be able to chat with MSN members from the Yahoo interface. So I will end up with only 2 clients on the computer - Yahoo and AIM.

Yahoo already has so many other Yahoo services linked into the messenger - Launch music, Games, Webcam, Finance, etc. It makes sense to keep using it for everything.

Maybe I stayed at USC for too short a time (2 years) so I don’t hate the Bruins as much as some of the die-hard Trojans do. But I am actually happy that the Bruins made it to the Final Four! If USC is not in the tournament, my next level of support goes regional, and first for the other LA team and then for the conference. So in either case, ucla becomes the next favorite.

Washington should have beaten UConn. But I am not so sad that they did not, because I had UConn in my bracket going to the Final Four :-)

Anyway, I am not a big fan of college basketball as such. But nowadays you cannot escape it, so I got involved a bit.

The third test between England and India ended in a huge win for England. England thus squared the series, which for them is quite an achievement considering they were virtually England A in this test, and they held on to the #2 spot in the rankings.

I really had a hope that the New India will rise to the challenge and win the match. The pitch seemed to be quite alright for a fifth day version, and there was enough batting depth to at least play out 2 sessions on merit and decide in the final session to go for it or not.

And to a great extent, the first session went well. Of course, the loss of Kumble was not a good one and then the big blow was Jaffer. Ideally, at lunch, we should have had Jaffer and Dravid with about 80-90 runs knocked off the 295 needed. But Jaffer was gone and Dravid was playing and missing, and Sachin was lucky to survive a few close calls. But in general, the health looked good.

Then, in a few balls after lunch, the match was pretty much wrapped up. A few wickets here and there and it was all over. Dravid made a big mistake by fielding after winning the toss, which he admitted to. But he also suggested that the top order failure caused the problem, which I agree with.

So here come the one dayers. Sachin is out with some surgery requirement. Surprisingly, Viru is still in. Anyway, let’s see how the one day series goes. Hope we thrash them, though it won’t be as sweet as thrashing them in tests, which did not happen :-(

I watched the ER episode from this week where Dr. Rasgotra goes to a dinner with the spouses of troops serving the country in the current war(s). I loved her exchange with the other spouses which started a bit uncomfortably and ended with a great punchline.

I looked for the clips and the text online and thanks to google, I found them at the Media Research Center:

Woman #1, referring to Dr. Rasgotra’s doctor husband: “So how’s Michael doing, back in the saddle again?"
Man: “God bless him, volunteering to go back."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “He’s fine, doing well. Says he’s very busy, misses me."
Woman #2: “Of course he does. He’ll be home again soon."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “Is Joe going to be home in time for the birth?"
Woman #2, clearly pregnant: “I don’t think so. He’d probably pass out in the delivery room, anyway."
Man: “I did."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “Seriously."
Woman #2: “Well, of course I want him home. But I knew what I was getting into when I married a soldier: The long absences, the moving for the umpteenth time, the pay."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “That’s sad he’s not gonna be here."
Woman #2: “It’s hard sometimes, but that’s why I’m so glad I have spouse club and all of you."
Woman #1: “Our loved ones are serving our country, and it’s a small price to pay."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “I think it’s a huge price to pay, especially under the circumstances."
Woman #1: “What circumstances?"
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “Well, the way the whole thing’s been handled, how we got into it, how it’s been managed."
Man: “What exactly do you mean?"
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “Never mind, I’m sorry."
Man: “No, no, no. Go on."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “Well, I still haven’t seen any weapons of mass destruction, have you?"
Woman #2, trying to change topics: “Who’s thirsty?"
Man: “If you don’t support the war, how do you justify what Michael’s doing over there?"
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “I don’t justify it, and I don’t support any war, but I do support our troops, and I am proud of my husband."
Woman #1: “Doesn’t sound that way."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “You can’t tell me that you believe 100 percent in your heart that we should be in Iraq, can any of you?"
Man: “I don’t think it helps to talk that way."
Woman #1: “Our duty is to support their duty."
Dr. Neela Rasgotra: “My duty is to be a good doctor and to be a good wife, not to be brainwashed into falling in line with some pseudo-patriotic delusion."
– ER, NBC, March 16, 2006

I watched the qualifying and the actual race of the Malaysian GP this weekend. The race was nothing spectacular, but I must say, it kept me interested throughout. Yea, I lost a bit of interest after the unfortunate incident for Kimi, but in general, it was a good race to watch.

What a start by Alonso! It was unbelievable how he shot ahead of the pack and ended up #3 after the first turn. Button’s starts have sucked so far, and Honda better do something about it.

The Ferraris seem to be holding up better than last year and even though they don’t have the capacity to truly race with Renault, the fact that they are in the mix again means that it will only take one or two mistakes from Renault to let Ferrari get back in the game.

And speaking of Renault mistakes, or lack thereof, what a fantastic job done by the team yet again, isn’t it? They had another superb pitstop just when they needed it, and they came up trumps with their engines when everyone else’s seemed to be blowing up here and there and everywhere. Congratulations to the team and they truly are the champions today.

And my final thought is on Kimi. What has he done to deserve what he went through pretty much all of last year and how he has started this year. Last race he has the mishap in the qualifying which put him back at the end of the grid, and this one, he seemed to be making his moves to get up in the positions, when I believe Klein hit him somehow and he lost it and the race was over for him. Very very unfortunate. I just hope his bad luck ends, because it will be quite a race to watch if Kimi and Alonso can duke it out at the top …

I just realized that I don’t have to work the entire week starting tomorrow. It was kind of unexpected, and no, it is not in any way signs of impending bad news. It is just one of the moves we are making to negotiate with our client.

But the bottomline for me is that it is sort of a pleasant surprise to get a break from the travel. I was getting a bit annoyed with it, in general, and to get such a break out of nowhere, makes it easy to get back on track.

Of course, the downside is that I cannot ask for any break for the next 12-15 weeks (that’s the duration of my next project). :-(

I have been having (always have, actually) a lot of trouble connecting my ipod and getting it to be automatically detected and have itunes open up for transferring music/podcasts to my ipod.

Invariably, the ipod does not get detected in itunes, but only on My Computer. That is usually no good, because I would like the intelligence that itunes provides in determining where I left off on the podcasts on the ipod, and which ones are the new ones on itunes, etc.

And looking at the apple support articles they simply recommend restarting, reinstalling itunes, or some such drastic measure. No simple disconnect/reconnect or “scan again” type of options.

I have a friend who has a mac mini and he keeps repeating the phrase ‘it just works’ and I am wondering if apple has some inbuilt bugs planted into the Windows itunes product just so that people get frustrated enough to jump ship.

What is going to happen to Matt Leinart, who is projected to be #2 in the draft and possibly go to the Saints? Will he play back up to Brees? For how long? Or will the Saints trade down and get multiple picks for their #2? In that case, could Leinart go to the Raiders? Not likely, since they have Andrew Walter waiting from last year’s draft.

So many possibilities ….

What seemed to be a match heading to a pathetic draw turned fast on the 4th day, thanks to Anil Kumble with the bat first and then with the ball. The rest of the tail wagged big time to give India a 38-run lead which was enough to scare England and put them in an unexplainable shell.

Invariably, when a team becomes overly defensive-minded, they start falling apart. Of course, the bounce in the pitch did not help England. Munaf Patel started the slide and then Harbajan and Kumble made England come down to its knees at 100-something for 5.

Then on the final day, Patel ensured that India do not end up with the ‘unable to finish an innings’ tag. He took 3 quick wickets and after some sort of resistance from Flintoff, it was all over. India needed only 144 to win with plenty of time. The sunshine was back - literally as well as figuratively.

Sehwag ‘fired’ after all. Now he is slotted in for 5 more tests and that is what I call lucky. This man has an amazing ability to score when most needed - not from a team perspective but from his own position perspective - and he does. This time, his 76 not out is probably going to stick in everyone’s minds and not the string of failures before that.

But that is all besides the point … the point is that India is now 1-0 up in the series and cannot lose it after the draw in the first match. On the other hand, England will be under tremendous pressure to win the next match so that they can hold on to their #2 ranking in the ICC table.

It was quite an interesting race. Fabulous job by Kimi of course. I think he is the best driver with the worst luck. He needs just a little better reliability on his car and he will be unbeatable. On the other hand, Alonso is a great driver with the most solid car.

Michael Schumacher got a podium for the first time after US GP of last year, which was a farce. And if not for a perfect pitstop from Renault or the traffic in front of Schumi around that time, it could well have been P1 for Michael. But that was not to be.

From the post race comments it was clear that Michael is trying to be more philosophical about this year. He has nothing to say about Ferrari last year and so a mellow approach will work best for the team and for himself.

For now it seems like Renault may be the team to beat. McLaren need to get their act together for another tough race coming up and for the rest of the season. And Ferrari just need to keep it solid. It is going to be a very interesting season…

Yay, the formula 1 season is back! And what a start … the new qualifying format makes interesting watching. All of last year I did not watch the qualifying because it was a little boring. But I think this format may make sense from a spectator’s standpoint. Of course, there are kinks to be worked out, like a red flag towards the end of the session which will make everyone scramble to create a time. But anyway …

Ferrari seems like they are back! Massa was a pleasant surprise making fast laps and even going ahead of Schumi for a lap or so.

Kimi had yet another bloody mechanical failure, which sucks because he is going to start at the bottom of the pile.

Trojanwire has a Youtube link to USC students' comments on the stupid billboard.

Check it out …

Maybe it is road rage in me. Maybe I should not expect so much out of drivers who drive a lot just to get to work and back. But can someone tell me since when did signalling left and right when changing lanes and taking turns become optional?

Is it that I need to revisit the driver manual? Or it is just that I should get used to this nonsense? People cutting me off just because I let them. People assuming that the blinker is a must, so they give the signal after moving into the lane. People who just can’t be bothered with anyone around them while they drive across two lanes in their big ol' bag of crap.

I have had so many instances of late that I have actually started noticing how many people give the signal and how many don’t. Guess what, in the last 3 days, NO ONE I saw used their left and right blinkers. NO ONE! Unbelievable.

Since hero Yuvraj is in, the real hero from the first test Kaif was left out. I can understand VVS getting left out, but only if the choice is between Kaif and him. But as it turns out, the new India prefers to keep its faith in someone who is coming back from injury to someone who probably saved the match for them only a few days back.

Go figure.

Hmph. I am tired of this.

I feel bad that I have not seen this year’s best movie yet. Of course, there was a time when the movie that won the Best Picture Oscar was actually quite a bad movie in terms of entertainment, but that has changed. Nowadays the movies that have won the award are actually box office hits too.

I know that I was disinterested in Crash because I knew there is Sandra Bullock in it. So knowing that, I decided to completely ignore all the hype around it and skip it. I should have watched it. Now it is time to wait for it to come on DVD.

In fact, except Munich, I have not watched any of the Film of the Year nominees :-(

In one of my earlier posts, I had said that the selectors seem to choose the playing XI in Indian cricket - not the captain, not the coach, not the team management - the selecctors! I was told no, those the were the bad old days, Dravid and Chappell will not allow that, etc.

But look at this article from the latest selection meeting.

More says:

When prodded about “the other opener” - Virender Sehwag failed in both innings here - More refused to take the bait. “He’s one of the best we have,” he said in perfunctory fashion. Enquiries about Harbhajan Singh’s fate, after unflattering figures of 2 for 527 from his last three Tests, met with a guarded response. “We haven’t even seen the pitch yet,” said More. “We’ll go there and decide on an XI after we see the pitch and conditions."

I forgot to post about our weekend last weekend in Los Angeles. We had so much fun .. Friday night we went to The Standard hotel after dinner and it was quite a nice place to just hang out. We sat at one of the lounges there - the music was great, the drinks were great and we generally had a great time. We were absolutely the last people to get out of the place. And that too, we were in no mood to leave - apparently it is the law to get everyone out of the place by 2am and we were out of the place by 2am. Came home and chatted some more before finally sleeping at about 4am! When was the last time we did that? Not sure. Not in a long long time!

Anyway, Saturday was lunch at one of the Thali places in Cerritos. Oh my goodness - we had so much to eat! We were bloody full by the end of lunch. I met with a few USC friends for dinner and then went to this party, but did not get a chance to get in. So the rest of the people were going to hang out with, came out and we ended up going to be a British pub in Santa Monica. Once again, it was almost the end of the night when we left from there. Another fun-filled (except for the waiting in the biting cold) night.

Sunday brunch was at The Grove Farmer’s Market. It was a beautiful day to be there - sunny, warm and pleasant. It was Mardi Gras celebration pretty much everywhere there, and it was just a happy feeling all over. Good to be there to soak all that happiness.

And Sunday evening, the wife and some cousins flew out and I stayed back and drove back to work on Monday morning.

The biggest part of this trip was the non-visit to the USC Bookstore.

What a freshness these English ex-cricketers bring to the commentary. I saw the India-Pakistan series and the sad commentators like Waqar, Rameez, Arun Lal, etc. were so easy to mute out. Now we have Gower, Nasser, Botham et al, and they do provide good commentary.

No mute here.

One thing I must say, the umpiring is quite pathetic in this match so far. And just a few moments ago, the third umpire joined this crappy party by giving Pieterson not out after seeing the replay from multiple angles, multiple times. All the commentators said he was out, and they were all quite surprised that he was given not out.

Before that, I think Dravid was clearly not out. And Sachin seemed to indicate that he nicked the ball. Quite a bad break for India so far, it seems.

A loss seems more likely than any other result in this match.

Now that India has been pushed to the ropes and is on the verge of losing the first test of the series, it is time to start thinking of the XI for the next match. The one important question that is going to come up, if Yuvraj gets healthy, is how do we accomodate him?

There are a few options that the team may consider:

1. Jaffer out, Yuvraj in … Dravid goes back to opening. Bad idea for two reasons - Jaffer does not deserve to be dropped, and there is no point in losing a specialist opener in the first place.
2. Kaif out, Yuvraj in … Bad idea. Kaif has played well and does not deserve to be dropped.
3. VVS out, Yuvraj in … this could be a possibility since VVS did not fire. Of course if he plays well in the second innings, even this option may be a bad idea. But for now, it looks viable.
4. Yuvraj is out till further notice. I would say that would be a good option. Betwee #3 and this option, the Indian team has a big decision to make.

Once again, India’s bowlers failed to close out an innings which should have ended at least 80-100 runs earlier. Having a team at 240-odd for 7 wickets with only one recognized batsman remaining should imply that your bowlers need to finish it for less than 275. Maybe 300. Definitely not 400!

Granted, the pitch was playing easier, and the batsmen were playing with more application than the first day’s batsmen. But still, letting the tail wag so much has become a habit for Indians and I hope the new ‘guru’ Chappell is able to address this issue quickly.

On a positive note for India, the bowlers bowled quite well on the first day, not letting England take any advantage batting first. Also, on a positive note, it is good to see Jaffer get his 50. It will relieve a lot of pressure and let him play with a little more confidence and little less jitter.

Now it is up to India to grind the England bowlers out and make sure they don’t have to bat again - being 130-odd for 1 at the end of Day 2 gives them enough time and wickets to create some pressure in the England second innings.

If you notice, since I jinxed the team already in some past post (or maybe it was in some comments on someone’s blog), I am going all the way with the bravado!

Good luck India …