Friday, March 20, 2009

Carnaval

I went to Arlon(Belgium) Carnaval last weekend. It was great to see pretty gals, kids, crazy people all dressed up to express themselves. I was standing next to this cute gal(photo below) she was not bored of shoting spiderman web on me and laughing out loud. as soon as i cleanup she shots again. It was cute for a while then for 2hr. but anyways i dont want to disppoint her.


Its the cavalcade through the streets of the city with groups of 50+countries conducting a mini tour of Europe carnival traditions, with a parade set with great music.

what's in name

I always thought what's in name but may be I was wrong.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Kick A*s: Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer

Jon Stewart vs Jim Cramer: It was fun to watch and it was very honest both side (I think).
Watch full unedited interview (with strong language).

I don’t think there’s any way Stewart is more knowledgeable than Cramer on markets, he’s just in the position of not being caught spouting garbage for the last several years. I like the fact that Jon made it a serious episode of it and hats of to Cramer for comming on and exposing the whole fiancial debacle. There would’nt have been a better way to handle the feud in which jon has repeatedly said that it was about the whole system.







and Impact of this-- to early to tell but already some noise about this on CNN


Remember Jon stewart's role in throwing CNN's Crossfire

Friday, March 06, 2009

Book Review: 20books in 2009

Status update on my 20books in 2009: 3 done 17 to go

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

House of Stairs by William Sleator

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi



Monday, March 02, 2009

That's what happened

2008 has been another memorable year and so far 2009 has be quite and confusing. Since my DNA designed to be opmistic and don't really know how to complaint, looking forward to glorious future and all the horror I escaped in past.

Sometime you have so much to do and you end up doing nothing..! that's me. much happend but I end-up posting nothing and I don't blame my lazyness but my slow internet connection.
anyways-- Chronical of few interesting happenings in 2009...so far:

>>> Horrible Market condition eventually reached me..well almost. some colleagues got fired but not me not yet. but then it's just work, I stopped worrying too much about it. Don't want to worry about things which I can't control or I can't change. If i can then i dont need to worry either.
layoff

>>> Luxembourg resident permit process...after 4month of waiting, countless calls,visits to foreign office and going thru emotional trauma since I was told my application & all original documents were lost,.. finally I got my visa renewed, valid 2012. I have no intention to stay here beyond that so I hope I don’t have to go thru this again.

>>> Thanks to local law, got my local driving licence(valid till 2022) by submitting my indian driving licence and without having to take any driving test. So all I need now is some driving lessons..;)

>>> Got hooked to some good music(like Tracy Chapman) which I wasn't exposed to before (thanks to uptowngal's playlist from downunder).
Went to Nitin Sawhney Live Concert...great night with awesome east-meets-west music.

>>> a friend, who I knew for 12+yrs and from whom I haven't heard from many years after his marriage(which is usually for first 3/6month not after)), got in touch after all those years to inform that he is coming to visit me. and he did. Had fun time taking him around to whatever little place-to-see in luxembourg. It was nostlogic weekend taking about all old days, bubbies,.. I have very high regards for him. he was one of those who's not idealogs, with all good intentions, habits & very highly flexible and yet another urban adult with simple hopes & aspirations. which is why i felt tiny earthquake when he told me, he is divorced now. that was a complete shocker. ofcourse he wasn't comfortable talking about it for any length and i guess that's also part of the reason why he was out-of-touch. I don't know how to react or what to talk about that subject. I dont know what happen but that's kinda confirms my fear/belief- marriage is random act of luck. not much a rational process/act can do to make or break it, atleast not always. anyways, everyone cannt be good to all and he is good to me. I will be his friend without any judgements.
when talking to someone else who knew about this, he was trashing ‘her’(mrs…ex) I don’t why we indians designed to think broke marrriage is broken character.!? Cannot two rational good individuals can come together and go part without anyone been cast as ‘bad-person’.!?
146

>>> all of us will have few things we bought for ourself, which we chearish for years, attach with personal memories and treat those items to be milestone/achievements. for me- it was a Timex watch, which i bought with my career-starter income & Pentax SLR camera from my time in tokyo. Strange as it might sound; I dont think, I felt such high even I bought a house..;) I don't why & cannt explain why those items gave such excitment and why i still save a broken Timex watch and Pentax SLR.! Such excitment came back again. Photography has been my interest for many years. for long I wanted a DSLR and was doing research, research, too much research on what to buy, good deals on price,..etc.. finally wait was over. I treated myself with Canon E450D (thanks to G for being my US proxy).
e450d
photo collections @flickrs

>>> Got to be friends with sweet German couple who I meet via random social circle during my early days in luxembourg and recently get invited for all German food & drinks night. Ofcourse food was nice but I must say I was surprised by the variety. Good long night with excellent food & drinks. Thanks to Birgit.

>>> manage to complete 4/20books in 2009, will post book review soon.

>>> song for current mood--
Traveling Thru by Dolly Parton