To have someone who can talk forever, sitting next to you on a plane ride, harping about some points that you may or may not care about, and while doing so, spraying on you once in a while.

Well, let me qualify it - as long as it does not rain, and as long as it is not colder than 65 :-)

This morning, as we were driving, the sky was overcast, the leaves had fallen on the ground, the trees had great colors - yellow, red, and multiple shades of orange.

It was just lovely.

How come I did not notice this earlier?

DirecTV International - South Asian Choices.

The USC Trojans went 6-6 in their first season under Carroll, including a 10-6 loss to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. They’re 32-3 since that time, including wins in 29 of their last 30 games and that one loss is against Cal last year, in triple overtime!

Tried a local motel for a change this week. It is bad. The only thing good about it is price. But my personal take is that we should step up on the price a little bit or maybe try to look for other hotels maybe a mile or two away, but get away from this one.

Some reasons:

1. No internet access
2. Really really old stuff - building, beds, fixtures, etc. In fact a lot of stuff is stained, rusted, etc.
3. They reassigned my room yesterday! When I walked in after dinner, there was this dude sitting there watching TV with the room door open. It was shocking.
4. Breakfast in included, but all there is in the breakfast is some crap pastries and Tang! No real OJ - just Tang. And bananas, which I like.
5. It is so noisy. After being reassigned, I got some other room, on the first floor. So no only did I hear people talking outside, but I heard the person above me moving in his room too. Besides that, the noise of the water was just excruciating.

All in all, though there is not much against it, I didn’t feel comfortable and I let it be known. Hopefully next time we will either move back to the other hotel or find something more exciting.

Kinda works against the whole ‘1000MB storage’ and ‘nifty user interface’ idea, but at least now you can collect all your mails in your mail program like Outlook or Outlook Express.

They are still rolling it out, in batches. So none of my user names have the POP access enabled, but soon, I won’t have to go to gmail.com to check my gmails :-)

There is a God

But Harbajan seems to reflect my thoughts:

From Cricinfo - Harbhajan reckoned that Aussie complaints were merely a case of grapes turned sour. “I wonder if they would have still whined had Australia, and not India, won the Mumbai Test,” he said. “When we go to Australia, we never complain about the Perth pitch. Or if we are in England, we don’t cry from the rooftop about the grassy and seaming conditions. So why now this outcry?"

Finally got cable internet hooked up at home. Time to give up DSL and hence, clear the way to give up the landline phone at home and sign up with the VoIP service from Vonage.

The pricing turns out to be similar to basic phone service from Pacific Bell SBC, but Vonage throws in a whole bunch of free stuff, so I think it makes sense.

But this one was not bad. Lesser crowd, and the place was mostly informal. We played some pool and had South Indian food for dinner. Great stuff.

We are done for a little bit. Next one is not for another month or so. Phew!

Forget the streaks. Forget Philly ruling the NFL. Pittsburgh beat them handily this weekend and brought the Eagles back to earth.

I think it was a good time for Philly to lose. It would give them some chance to stare at reality and make sure they understand that they are beatable. Now, they can regroup and start planning the next games.

They are certainly my favorite team, but some injuries at key positions have made them a little vulnerable. Hopefully they’ll snap out of it and get back on track.

USC continues to be #1. Its the 11th week in a row now. Knock on wood!

I have blog fatigue. I feel that I want to write but I cannot because I don’t get a good chunk of time (or internet access) to type my stuff. And then when I do get to a computer with some time on my hands, it is usually too late. Most of the thoughts are stale and I cannot write what I wanted to.

What a game it was. The stadium in Corvalis (Oregon State U) was so foggy. My eyes were so stressed trying to focus on the TV to see the ball. And this despite the fact that the TV cameras make it much much better for us to see the TV.

USC started really badly. They were not able to see the ball or throw the ball. So on defense they were unable to stop the pass, and on offense they were not able to get any passing game going.

Well, like all the tough games this season, they did something at halftime and made 28 straight points to make it 28-13 from 0-13. The Beavers were able to score a TD late in the game, but that was all.

28-20 for USC. More importantly, a ‘W’ in the last game outside California.

Now, Arizona at home, Notre Dame at home and ucla in Pasadena, which is virtual home.

I’ll be able to see Arizona and Notre Dame but not ucla :-(

About my earlier post on Fox Sports Net, I was off. I did not know that there is something called Fox Sports Net Plus, which on the Program Guide shows up as ‘ALT1’.

I had to resort to some online groups to get the information. Besides, I did not know about fsnbayarea.com, so I just went to foxsports.com and could not find anything there.

Dish Network was of course clueless. They in fact signed me up for the Multi Sport Package and I had to disconnect that package.

Oh well. I got what I really wanted - the see that game :-)

Looks like KB’s blog is deleted/taken offline. Anyone know what is going on? When I try to go there it says no page found or such :-(

Another one bites the dust :-(

The #1 team in the country USC is playing a late night game (7pm) on Fox Sports Net, and Fox Sports Bay Area is not showing it. So you know what? We are not going to be able to see the game unless we subscribe to some annoying Multi-Sport Package!

That’s just nonsense to me. How can they not show the #1 team (kinda regional too) on free TV or basic cable??

I am quite flustered. :-(

Ponting slammed the pitch at Bombay for the test ending in virtually 2 days. That is completely wrong. I think the wickets fell because of bad batting more than the pitch being bad.

Now, I agree that I have not seen the game at all, and my beliefs are based totally on news reports, which I have read in quite detail.

So here’s my retort to some of the stuff Ponting has said:

“I know lots of questions will be asked and match reports on this wicket will be sent to the ICC [International Cricket Council]. As a player you want to be tested in different conditions but this is going a bit too far. We played in three other venues where the conditions were different in all the matches and, apart from Nagpur, all of them were going into the fifth day.”

RPM: Why is this going too far? It was clear that the pitch suited the bowlers more than the batsmen. In today’s world, cricket is totally a batsman’s game. For a change there was a pitch that suited the bowlers. If your batsmen don’t have the patience to stick around, like true test match cricket warrants, it does not mean you blame the pitch. Not every pitch can be an ‘ideal’ pitch. That is one of the main features of cricket - the pitch is different at every place.

“We knew it [the target] was achievable but at the same time we knew it would be very hard. We had to get some partnerships going but, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The first 15-20 minutes were very difficult but none of us got past that. We gave ourselves a chance to chase; 107 in any conditions you should be able to achieve. We were not good enough today and India put us under pressure.”

“You can’t say anything to any batsman who played on that wicket. It was all about calculated risks and you hope they come off, but it didn’t come off for any batsman.”

RPM: Thank you, my point exactly.


“It was a disappointing return for me, missing out on a huge part of history was disappointing I was hoping to get a five-day Test match and make some runs; play the same brand of cricket that we had throughout the series. But we didn’t win the Test match and I didn’t make any runs. It was a disappointing way to end the series.”

RPM: Yes, that is true. It was disappointing. But you missed the action in 3/4th of the series, and I hope you were not expecting to come in and start rollicking right away. That would be ideal, but not real. So just suck up and enjoy the series win. Take the Border-Gavaskar Trophy home and just be happy that it is not 2-2 but 2-1.

“He added that losing Shane Warne to injury for the Test was a big blow to the side, especially since India exploited the track fully with three very good spinners.

He said it would have been interesting to have Warne bowl on a wicket that afforded so much turn since he spins the ball a long way even on wickets that are not very helpful”

RPM: Yes, and looking at the way the Aussie fast bowlers bowled, it would have been interesting if Pathan were there in the Indian squad. Too bad. I think Warne/Pathan missing are wash and there is nothing to talk about. The other spinners in your side did step up, so don’t talk about who was not there and what could’ve been. If India had Gangs and Sachin for all the matches, who knows what could’ve been.

Summing up the series, he said the difference between the two sides was that India did some things well but didn’t do them for long enough, while Australia was consistent and able to put enormous pressure on their opponents.

RPM: Good conclusion. My thoughts too.

http://www.bush-flipflop.com/watb.html

Can you believe it? India actually were able to defend a target of 100-odd?? Amazing turn of events.

Surprisingly, the match ended in 2 days and 11 overs! A TWO DAY test match?

In light of what happened in the match, Clarke’s 6-wicket haul was probably a blessing in disguise because that made the target a little ‘too easy’ for the Aussies. That means they did not care much about losing wickets. In the end the pressure crept up and they could not do much to avoid defeat.

You know what - VVS finally showed up. When there was not much but pride (and his spot in the side) was at stake. Now, when the selectors re-convene to decide who’s in and who’s out, his name will pop out as ‘The Guy who set up the win’. And so he will be included for at least one more series.

Karthik (the bowler, not the keeper) did well for himself in the chance he got. I think Dravid has more faith in him than Gangs has. And he proved that the captain’s confidence is a big difference maker in a bowler’s performance.

We should have been able to tie the series 2-2 because I really think we could have got 200 runs on the last day in Chennai. But of course, if wishes were horses…..

From the days of Seinfeld and Friends, NBC has ruled Thursdays. But unfortunately for them, they have lost me on Thursday.

For the 8pm slot, I will be watching The OC.

For the 9pm slot, I will be watching North Shore, but not as dedicatedly as I would watch The OC. The Apprentice may get some of my viewing time. But again when I saw it last night, I was not impressed. There is more drama in the show now than there should be. Than what it was intended to show us. So for now, NBC has lost me on the Thursday 9pm slot too.

And surprisingly, I happened to watch some of E.R. last night and it is actually quite a good show! Yea, I know a lot of people would say ‘D-uh!’ and ‘I told you so’ and even ‘This year is one of the bad years’, but I like it a lot. Its just around my bed time, so I am not sure how much I can watch it ;-)

There are only two shows that make me want more as soon as they are over. They make me feel like the episode should not have ended. They get over too fast and yet, I feel quite satisfied watching them.

American Dreams on NBC Sundays at 8pm

The O.C. on Fox Thursdays at 8pm

Ok, so the big night came and went. The OC is back on air and the season premiere, I must say, was a little punch-less. I know it is difficult to pick up from such a climactic ending, but still, it looks like it is going to be back at Newport Beach from next episode onwards.

Still, there were some moments - “Hobos are hot nowadays” by Seth was funny. And as usual, kinda cheeky.

And Kirsten’s “Sandy, are you trying to see if I am not listening to you by saying some gibberish?” and Sandy replying “No, so you did follow me?” and the “No” after that was good too.

I think it is going to be a lot of fun though. The whole Teresa pregnancy thing and Seth finally coming back though he detests the Newport life, is going to have enough punch. Besides, there are going to be 4 new characters, and we already saw one of them - the almost-ugly-buff-to-the-limit garden boy.

Can’t wait for the next time!

Hungary pulls out of the ‘big’ coalition. Smells like a good kick in the face to me.

BBC News link here.

What is W planning to do to make us feel better and hopefully more comfortable as US Citizens of the future?

Show me the plan now! :-)