Thursday, September 25, 2008

How to save yourself from a terrorist attack..

Start bashing up your neighbor..
 
Start looting the nearest shop..
 
Beat up the shop keeper while you are at it..
 
Start a fight with your best friend..
 
Do anything but do not (I repeat, DO NOT) be a bystander..
 
Bystanders are always innocent..
 
And terrorist attacks kill innocent bystanders!!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Fizzling Investments..

My campaign manager writes asking what my position on the investment bank fiasco is.. or to put it in his words..

R u planning to write something on the Lehmann’s and Merrill lynchs and the like…..the end of investment banking…..in general….and is it anyway going to affect john deere di daal and roti….


The last part, I shall ignore, since it is official Deere matter. There's a reason I am in (Virtual) Manufacturing and not in Finance. It is not right to talk of my current company being exposed to the financial crisis, since I am not the best person to talk about it.. Nowhere near..

But, about Lehman Bros, and Merrill, and AIG, and all others, it's surprising that all the MBA Finance hot shots didn't know enough finance to know that if you give a loan to someone, you better make sure that if the guy defaults, you have some way by which you get your money back.. They call it surety, and you don't need MBA finance to know that.. If my bhaji wala needs a loan, he leaves something with me as surety (girvi in Hindi).. Even uneducated people know that.. if the surety is a loan by the bhaji wala to someone else, and on and on, it's kind of difficult to keep track of all of this..

About the bailout from Uncle Hank, I don't know the details. I believe the deal is that the US government is going to buy into AIG / Bear Stearns / Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac and then sell it off, once things start to turn around. But, if that is the case, wouldn't it be better for some private firm to do it? Unlike Uncle Hank, they would have a direct stake in turning around their investment.. If you are guaranteeing that the sick firm will improve, why would someone buy it (later) at a higher price, that what they are getting for now? If they don't have the money today, how would they have the money tomorrow, when the same thing is going to cost more?? That's basic logic, isn't it??

On a personal note.. My wife is the only person I know who has an offer letter signed by Hank Paulson. In retrospect, it seems like a mighty fine decision that she didn't accept.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My terrorist is better than your terrorist

OK.. This is not an attempt to trivialize matters of life and death.. But the capitals of India and Pakistan were both hit by bomb blasts exactly a week apart... If "intelligence" agencies are to be believed, both were by home grown teams of terrorists.. One blast in Islamabad and 5 in Delhi... but the one in Pakistan was much stronger and killed many more people.. the amount of expertise required for carrying out such an operation is very difficult, and would have been impossible to conduct totally in secrecy..
 
Can we say that our security is better than their security??  Can we say that the intelligence in India is so good, that it can prevent a Marriott??  
 
Or can we just say that it really doesn't matter??
 
People have died in both... Let's not let these guys win by doing exactly what they want us to do...
 

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Cheerios...

The mood is a lot better today.. nothing to do with Saturday.. but overall looks like it's a brand new day... so everything ok people.. don't worry too much..

I'm still in the race to the Lok Sabha ..

Friday, September 19, 2008

Recalibration of all that's important..

Those who know me from my teenage days know that I have a very short fuse.. I was the typical teenager - misunderstood, "me against the world", somewhat of a loner.

But now I have changed..  That was many years ago, I'd tell myself.. That was a young, immature version of me, I'd tell myself..

I'd always tell myself that if I ever met him again, I'd say "just relax.. Nothing's so bad to get angry about it.. It'll just pass"

For the last few days I'm seeing that guy again.. I am losing that patience that I had built up in me.. I am getting cranky, and pissed off.. Feeling misunderstood and taken for granted.. But I don't say things any more… I keep it bottled up.. When the pressure gets too much I erupt.. When I do blow off steam, it aggravates others… Those who are near and very dear to me..

And that disappoints me even further…

30 year old men are not supposed to cry for no reason..


Thursday, September 18, 2008

A job can at times get frustrating... You, as an individual, are always working hard.. But you feel bummed.. You feel like your work is not recognised.. You feel like people are taking credit for things they don't deserve and also not take all your hard work seriously..
 
Someone from work got diagnosed with Cancer.. Not here, but in the US..I didn't know him personally, but know him from work.. Went for lunch ./ dinner a couple of times.. I don't know the seriousness of the cancer, but the specter is there.. I last met him a year ago, jovial and happy.. 2 boys and a girl.. all slowly entering their teens and full bloom of life.. and how happy and excited he was to know that..
 
That's when you realise it's just a job... Temporary and fleeting in nature and bound to change.. Everything changes... job profiles change, seasons change, people change, circumstances change, times change...
 
Only birth and death are permanent..

Friday, September 12, 2008

Live Chat Transcript

This actually happened today..
 
9:45 AM me: not much..
  only when sleepy..
  hey .. anyway .. time to go..
9:46 AM am on vacation today.. so loads of work to do..

What's worse.. it came very naturally

Microsoft Kibosh

My Google Chrome doesn't work any more.. Uncle Gates put the kibosh through Windows XP service pack 3..
 
At least that's what I think.. IE7 works, but Chrome doesn't.. I didn't bother with Firefox and Safari..
 
After I installed the SP3...
 
Damn Windows..
 
Damn
 
Damn
 
Damn

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hobby Horse

They told me at emergency response training class today that a major cause of heart attacks is stress..

The trainer also told me that research says that if you spend 2 hours a week on a hobby, you wouldn't have very high stress levels...

2 hours a week is roughly 17 minutes a day..

So to save me some stress, I decided today to spend 17 minutes on my primary hobby..

Today though, I have no idea what to write about..


Phew.. The things I have to do to avoid a heart attack..

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Does Google Chrome work for you?

Am biased to all things Google, but yes.. It does work.. Works just as fast as IE7, and even has the capability to go incognito to ensure the browser history is not captured.

Still young days, but I rate it above the Safari and even above Firefox for now. Though Firefox has been around for longer, and I still don't know too many of the bugs of this thing..

Monday, September 01, 2008

Wise advice from the strangest source

We bought two toilet brushes, which came with fragrant cards for room freshening. To lighten up the mood further, they even had messages on them, like a fortune cookie. One of them said
 
"Life is what you make of it"
 
Imagine, a toilet brush telling you that on a Monday morning.