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.

With all the other sports action, I completely disregarded the Australian Open, until a couple of my colleagues started talking about the number of Russian women in the main draw, as also the fact that they went quite deep into the tournament.

My hotel does not have ESPN2, so we were not able to watch the games, even if they were tape delayed. Speaking of which, what the hell is wrong with the American TV networks? Why can’t they show the initial rounds live? I know they showed some of the matches live, but most of it seemed to be tape delay. Of course, if I don’t know enough, ignore this rant.

So last night we went to a local sports bar and watched Sharapova/Williams. More on that in another post.

Of course, of all the Russian women, and the talk of possibly 3 out of 4 semifinalists or maybe 7 out of 8 quarter finalists, only one made it to the semis. So I have something to rub it into my colleagues. :-)

Hmm. Where do I start with my review on this film?

Let’s start with the summary, or the rating. On my scale it scored a good rating because I did not sleep! There were parts in fact in the first half where, because of a heavy lunch, I almost dozed off. But overall, it was quite entertaining. Of course, if you ask me from what I know now, if I would go to the movies and spend $10/person on that movie, I would say ‘no’.

So first thing - Subhash Ghai. That is what pulled me to this movie. I did not know the storyline, nor the starcast. I went for it because it was his first directed film after a long time. But for some reason I was quite disappointed. First of all, there were not too many long scenes, so that scenes kept fading out and fading in a lot. It could be that they were edited for the US audience, but whatever. My takeaway was that there were too many short scenes.

Secondly, there were no good effects. The horses for example, sounded way too electronic. Also, some of the fight scenes and riot scenes looked too ‘studio-like’. And that’s a pity, coming from Ghai and coming in this day and age.

On to the movie and the first positive thing in the movie is the various shots of the valley. The mountains, with the greenery, with snow-capped peaks in the background, and fog sometimes and sun others, was simply beautiful. There are a lot of such shots in the movie and I loved those. In fact there was also one quick scene in London and I liked that too, with the fall-like colors. I think it was in one of the songs.

The next positive in the movie is the presence of, and acting of Antonia Bernath. She is so beautiful and she shows that she was not in it just for face value. She has acted very very well. As I read somewhere, the movie should not have been called Kisna, but Katherine. I sorta agree. The movie is not about him, it is about her. She has done quite well for herself, and looks well throughout the movie.

The soundtrack is not-so-bad, but I don’t think I remember any particular song or theme now, a few hours after the movie. Plus, repeating some of the tunes/songs makes it difficult to associate a song/tune with a scene.

Negatives - the other girl has been wasted. She can consider herself ‘launched by Ghai’ but there was nothing for her to do in the move except dance. More on that later. She can’t act much and thankfully she is not made to act much. But in general, she could have been used more, not only in the existing script, but also, with a slightly different script. She looks pretty and has great moves, but then again, so do many of Shiamak Davar’s students :-)

Another major major negative is the overuse of the ghagra in the dances pictured on Luxmi. Why does he have to fan out the ghagra so much? Did not understand that.

And what is it about her and the rope?? She is unbelievably flexible, but I did not go to see Cirque du Soleil! I was quite turned off after a few seconds of the rope thing.

Subhash Ghai should focus on producing movies and directing masala films rather than coming out with such serious movies. But I would not say that the movie was a waste of money either. Go watch it. Antonia will not disappoint you.

From an earlier post:

“I think the Steelers will beat the Pats and Atlanta will cause an upset in Philly.”

Well, the Pats pounded the Steelers and the Eagles won more than comfortably. I had taped the games and I did not watch either of them. Not that I am disappointed with the Falcons losing. I am more disappointed at the Steelers. Of course, I am now rooting for the Eagles.

But hats off to this New England Patriots team. So much confidence. So much talent. And so much modesty. Unreal.

I am seeing an increasing number of those yellow ribbon bumper stickers with ‘Support Our Troops’ on them. I did not care much about the stickers till I had a discussion/argument with one of my coworkers.

And he brought a good point. He said that all this ra-ra-ra is useless because no one is really talking about bringing them home or why they are there in the first place.

My point is that innocently speaking, we should be supporting the troops who are fighting for the country. No matter what the situation is, now matter how moral (or immoral) the war is, the fact is that they are putting their lives at stake and fighting to (at least supposedly) protect the country.

But his point was that all this is just propoganda. He said that this is typical brainwashing being done to effectively let the average Joe understand that the war is something to be proud of and that the decision itself to go to war is immaterial.

Which made me think, and increasingly, I am realizing that no one is really asking why we are there, what is our role there, how long are we going to be there, and how are we going to pull out. Nothing. How come there are no stickers with ‘Bring our troops back home’, or ‘Who will pay for the war’?

Stop this brainwashing - accept the blame, fix the problem and bring the troops back home with their families. Protect the country at home, not thousands of miles away.

Enough of liberation. Time for a reality check.

It has been a very very long day. Woke up early to set up a new printer. Did not work too well because I was not completely awake when I tried and I left the plastic wrapping on and it caused some error and it does not go away now. Will have to check with tech support tomorrow morning.

But more importantly, it was time to put tiles in the basement - the ENTIRE basement. Well, it is not as big as you would think, but to put 1 ft x 1 ft tiles in a 220-230 sq ft area takes a lot of time. Also, we had to plug the cracks before we put the tiles. It was quite a good experience and it took literally the whole day to get it done and the wife and I both broke our backs and a few other parts of the body in trying to complete the task.

But I feel glad to say that and to realize that it is done! Now we will be able to sleep well, knowing that the only thing that remains now is to clean the room once and then start moving stuff downstairs. Let’s see what happens and when.