Kerry calls it pathetic. Check out the CNN item for details.

Fox News Channel admits fake story about Kerry!

Even though it was meant to be a joke/spoof, it came on as a news article, and I am not sure an apology works well in this situation.

But what will? The damage has been done. The Republican supporters are pretty good at throwing random stuff without checking if it is really true or not, and then apologizing (sometimes). How can this be stopped?

One good way to make sure you are not a victim of fraud, is not to click on links sent via email. Even if it seems to be from ‘Billing’ or ‘Customer Service’ from a company you know - like Paypal or Earthlink or whatever.

The best thing to do if you do receive such emails, is to call that company directly and have them take a look at the account.

*** DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN EMAILS ***

It was quite refreshing to the ‘good old’ Star 98.7 station while in LA. Jamie is still on in the mornings, but instead of Jamie, Frosty and Frank (was it that?), the show is now just ‘Jamie and Danny’. They are not as funny as the trio used to be, but it was good to hear Jamie’s voice on the radio.

On the other hand, Ryan Seacrest has moved from Star in the afternoons to KIIS in the mornings. He has a decent show too, but KIIS plays only 4 songs. Over and over again. It got quite boring to listen to that station, I must say. It used to be one of my favorite ones, but nope - no good anymore.

Among the rock stations, 95.5KLOS is still the same - very dependable for a good dose of rock and roll. At least when I listened to it off and on over the weekend, they seemed to have toned it down a little bit and there wasn’t much of ‘noise’ anymore.

Arrow 93.1 was very very nice, especially because all of Sunday they had a Rush marathon going. I love Rush and it was so cool to keep listening to their songs back to back to back.

Did not get a chance to listen to KROQ much, so no comments there.

But most importantly, since I am in North East San Diego, I have a good enough reception of Star 98.7 and 95.5 KLOS. Guess you know what I am going to listen to :-)

It’s Monday afternoon, and I am back at work since this morning. The weekend was awesome very enjoyable. Los Angeles always always makes me feel good. Don’t know what it is about the city, and everything therein, but it is just a great feeling to be there.

Drove back early in the morning, so I am kinda tired. The traffic was absolutely, surprisingly not bad till about 5 miles before destination. So I think it is a viable thing for me - to go to LA if needed, over the weekend, and drive back on Monday morning.

Reached there Friday night, and had dinner at a nice Mexican place - El Coyote. The waitresses were scary looking, but I think that was by design. They were made to look scary, what with their witchy-dress and all that. The food was so-so. I’ve had better Mexican elsewhere. We were so tired that night, that we just went off to sleep after that. Of course, we saw a little bit of Coupling - a friend has Seasons 1 to 3 on DVD. The show is awesome too good. Very funny, even on the 4th watch.

Saturday morning, we went to the Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. It is designed by Frank Gehry, whose work is awesome apparently good. The auditorium unfortunately was closed because of an on-going rehearsal. I would say it is a must-see for people visiting LA. Before that though, we stopped by Annapurna for South Indian brunch. It was awesome so filling! And what was interesting was that some of the booths had flat screens, keyboards and mice, for free computer use, including internet! Wow, did not know that South Indian places would double as internet cafes. Good move, Annapurna.

After Disney, we took the traditional USC bookstore trip. Bought some t-shirts and had some coffee in the Trojan grounds. Trojan grounds is the famous coffee shop at USC where I have spent quite a few $$$ during school times. It serves Starbucks coffee and other related stuff. Very nice to see that they are still the same - crowded and cool.

For some reason, this trip to USC did not give me goosebumps that much. I guess most of the times I have visited after graduation, I have been there during vacation time. So the campus has been empty. And that is huge because you get a chance to soak it in. But last weekend, there were many kids walking about and having fun and it seemed ‘crowded’ to me. Weird.

Went to a Formula-1 store from there. The store is in Beverly Hills and has the best collection of racing merchandise I have seen ever. Pretty huge replica collection, and also suits and jackets. All of it was of course very expensive, but the guy at the store was telling me that it is all an investment because these become collectible in some time because these things are not mass-produced. They stop production after a period of time. I wanted to get the Kimi hat, but it was $40! Could not convince myself that it was necessary :-(

Came home and relaxed for a bit, and then decided to meet up with some cousins. One goes to ucla (boo!) and the other lives in Riverside. The latter was visiting the former and they had both gone to see the ucla game (vs San Diego State). We met for dinner, at a Malaysian place. Very nice. Tasty food - all around. Filled ourselves to the limit and then decide to get some dessert at a dessert place. But we forgot that it was Saturday night in Old Town Pasadena, so everywhere there was a huge line. So we skipped The Cheescake Factory, 21 Choices and some others, before standing in line at the Ghirardelli store. But before we could order, they gave us some samples of their chocolate. We had one ‘thin’ each and it was yum! It was sooo good that we decided to skip dessert and carry on. We ended up going to the Pasadena Brewing Company - a micro brewery. It was my cousin’s (from Riverside) birthday, so we sang for him, and then, since we were all quite tired - we from all the ‘sight seeing’ in the day time and them from the game, we decided to call it a night. Drop one cousin off in Westwood and came home and slept.

Sunday morning, we had brunch with some good buddies from USC. It was fun to catch up. More about one of them in a later post. From there, we went to see Garden State at The Grove.

Garden State is an AWESOME movie. It is written and directed by Zach Braff, and he is also in the movie as the main character. It is kinda slow, but very well made. I highly recommend the movie. And yea, the soundtrack to it - fabulous. I think it may the first CD I will buy in years!

We wanted to see Shark Tale immediately after that, but we decided against it. Instead, we took a drive up the coast to Malibu beach. It was a nice drive and we had fun in the car, looking at the lucky people who live on the mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Drove back, relaxed for a few minutes and went to Masala in Cerritos, which is Little India in the LA area. Masala is known for its desi Chinese food, and we pigggggged out there. All the stuff there was excellent. Taste-wise as well as quality-wise. To top it off, we had the Mango Souffle there, and we were not disappointed. It was beautiful.

Then, came back home and picked up the bags from my cousin’s house, where we were parked for the weekend, and went to a friend’s house to stay with her. She just moved from SF to LA and we know here from the time we moved to SF (I know here from slightly before that). Spent the night there and woke up early morning (5am) and started driving at about 6.15am. Reached here in 2 hours, checked in and here I am.

It is only Monday afternoon yet :-(

This college football weekend was not so bad. Even though USC did not play.

Ohio State lost.
LSU was crushed! That should take care of their non-defense of the co-National Championship.
Oklahoma did not have a customary blowout. And that too, against Baylor.
I am glad Miami is doing well.
I am also glad VA Tech is doing well and they beat W Va (#6)!

What worries me a little bit now, is that Cal is really really strong, and so is ASU. And USC plays them back-to-back weeks! But luckily though, both are at home :-)

Hope that this critical period in USC’s season passes by well.

From mid-day.com:

• On why he gave up the Indian captaincy:

I felt we were not all heading in the right direction and it was affecting me as a person. Even ten days after a match I would still be thinking about why this happened and why that happened, and it started affecting me as a person. Also, I felt there was lack of support from every direction.

• On not seeing eye-to-eye with the selectors:

I was not happy with the selectors at all. It just didn’t work out. They had different ideas, I had different ideas. The only thing is, I had to go in there and play with their ideas.

• On talk that he is batting too cautiously:

I really don’t know how to put it across, because I can never make everyone happy.

If I play a big shot and get out, some people will say, what’s the need to do that when there are so many strokeplayers around, can’t he just try to play 50 overs? I feel I should play the way I think I should play.

The Coalition of the Diminishing

Thailand: 423 troops leaving early on Aug. 31 instead of Sept. 20; 20 withdrawn on Aug. 10.

Norway: 10 currently in Iraq; 140 withdrawn on June 30. Cited reason: growing domestic opposition and peacekeepers needed elsewhere, such as Afghanistan.

Dominican Republic: 302 withdrawn on May 4. Cited reason: growing domestic opposition.

Honduras: 370 withdrawn on May 12. Cited reason: Troops were sent for reconstruction, not combat.

Nicaragua: 115 withdrawn on Feb. 4. Cited reason: lack of funds.

Philippines: 51 withdrawn on July 19. Cited reason: to save lives of hostages.

Singapore: 160 withdrawn on April 4. Cited reason: completed humanitarian mission.

Spain: 1,300 withdrawn on May 4. Cited reason: new government fulfilled campaign pledge.

Could it be real? Vc has put some shayaris on his blog with my name on it!!!

Thanks, Vc. I didn’t know I was so special! :-)

Oh by the way, AWESOME pictures on both your blogs.

AWESOME, AWESOME!

Disclaimer: I am not such a big fan of IE (though I still have it as my default browser) but I love the Firefox browser. Just love it. Especially their ‘Live Bookmarks’.

Check out this nice little thing on news.com.

Since the wife is here this weekend, we decided to go up to LA. There is a cuz, and a friend who are half a block from each other there. So it will be fun to hang out.

I was thinking of Six Flags, but for now, we decided not to go there. Spend time hanging out in LA. Go maybe to the Disney Concert Hall and maybe even to the Getty Museum. Let’s see how and what happens.

Well, not really. Plenty of games, most of them being conference plays. But USC is off. So a much-needed break. Hopefully they are working hard to play against Cal next weekend.

Need to watch out for Georgia. Also, if Oklahoma has a blowout this week, it may creep up even more on USC for the #1 ranking.

But in general, as Pete Carroll says, it is the Pac-10 Championship that matters. If we can get to the Rose Bowl, that is great. If we can move up to the National Championship, it is of course much better.

But at least this weekend is tension-free :-)

For the second week in a row, I noticed that even at 85mph, I feel like I am driving much much slower than the other cars on the roads here. There is enough traffic here but not bumper-to-bumper. Still even 80mph on 101 in San Jose makes me feel insecure and I feel like I am the fastest on the road. And even 85 over here in San Diego seems slow.

Weird.

Or maybe it is the car I am driving - the dream American machine - Ford Taurus. Last week it was a free upgrade to Grand Marquis. Boat, I should say.

Had lunch at the cafeteria today. The lady was nice enough to make me a nice veggied sandwich with spicy mustard and mayo. Awesome. Filled me up. Fingers smell of spicy mustard now :-)

Also been having a lot of Pepsi Edge - their alternative to Diet Pepsi, with half the cals as Pepsi. Tastes not-so-bad. I know it is just a temporary thing. Will pass off quickly.

Wow. That’s great news. I love Conan. He is kinda weird to some, but I love how he does his show. Sarcasm all over. I am very happy for Conan.

But a five year notice? That’s real long-term thinking!

Graf and Sabatini - image from Sify Sports.

“Yes, you can actually drive a Ferrari on Mumbai’s roads,” Sachin said, when asked whether he gets the chance to drive the Ferrari in his home city.

Crap. Days are shorter. It is dark when I go to work and it is dark when I leave. Sad days are here again :-(

Give me back my summer! :-(

Another picture from The O.C. - Copyright Fox

Check this blog out - Have I heard this shaayari before? Maybe. Good picture!

Chose a different hotel this week. The room is not so good, and the room does smell strange. But it does have free high speed internet access. Gives me time to write this stuff at the end of the day.

Oh by the way, the curtains suck. There are two white things, one kinda transparent and the other not-so-transparent. The third layer, the one with the pictures, does not draw at all! Now I am insecure about what people outside can see :-)

But it has internet acccess :-)

Most likely, we’ll change hotels for good from next time onwards.

Took Southwest again this week. But unlike last week, this morning there was absolutely no line. I went there at the same time as last week, but I got group B instead of group C for boarding. Also, there was no line at the ‘B’ entrance. The Starbucks line was 10 times longer than the flight boarding line!

Reached on time, but the damn rental car shuttle waited and waited and waited at the airport. The last time around, they picked us up and took off immediately. Not so today.

It evened out at the end, I guess. I got in early/on time but wasted time in the shuttle to the rental car, but also got reservations in FastBreak so I could pick up the car quickly.

Got in at about 11.30 and wasted (in some ways) most of the day talking to the vendor guys trying to resolve issues with the tool. They are going to be here for 3 days (2 more). Let’s see how it goes.

Was a relatively uneventful weekend. Met with some cousins for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. Nice food, as usual. Quite funny how I have started liking Ethiopian. The first time I had it, over 5 years ago, I had decided never to taste it again. Times have obviously changed.

One of my cousins who was visiting from India, is leaving today. We’ll miss her a lot. Hopefully she will find a ‘saras chokro’ and come back here soon :-)

Other than that, saw the USC game and was relieved that we won. Spent Sunday exchanging the phone we got for my wife and going to a nearby furniture store. The store is going out of business, but you know what, the prices don’t reflect the fact at all! It was a quick browse-through. In fact, we did not even like most of the stuff. Worked out well in the end :-)

Now it is Monday morning and time to go back to San Diego. Luckily this week, wife is coming to visit. She’ll be there Wed night and we’ll spend the weekend in LA/SD. Not sure what to do, but at least we’ll be together :-)

Forgot about this, but here are the other fall shows worth watching:

Mon: Still Standing. Very funny, always cracks me up.
Mon: Everybody Loves Raymond. Looks like they are setting up for ending the series. Raymond’s parents are moving to New Jersey. So it seems that will be the theme of this season.
Tues: According to Jim. Starts off as usual - funny and highly entertaining. Cheryl wants to have a baby, so looks like a new baby will be the theme of the series. I can see so many places where it can become hilarious!
Wed: That 70’s Show. So funny. I am amazed how much good writing there is, in this show. Each character is well done and the actors are doing a great job. Though I must say, I see Donna smiling when someone else is delivering a funny line.
Thu: Saw some pre-season OC stuff, but Joey is actually not that bad. Will & Grace is not that funny and The Apprentice sucks.
Fri: 8 Simple Rules. Quite funny, but again, I think it was truly funny with the father, but David Spade’s character is bringing in some funnies.

But one show I want to mention and highlight, is American Dreams. It is in its third season, and it is about life of a family in Philly in the 60’s. It is a very well written show and the topics there are quite similar to what is going on here. Vietnam war and its related support and protests, teenage angst, Catholic school influences, etc. I highly recommend watching it. The season 1 DVD is out and I am seriously considering purchasing it.

Wow. For the first time in the season, Schumacher had a bad race. The only other time he did not get any points was when he crashed out. The only other time he did not finish first was the previous race.

So this race was effectively quite a bad one for him. Shows that he is a human being. But the excitement of course revolved around Rubinho, who secured his second place with a good win.

Vill was not faring too well. The car is awesome, but Vill probably is doing a good job of running these three races now so that he is in the groove with his new team next year. Hopefully it will be good competition for the leaders.