Principles of economics, translated

Yoram Bauman's take on Greg Mankiw's Principles of Economics..... hilarious!

Happy 20th, ummm, 25th, Smiley face!

When did it happen?
September 19th, 1982 at 11.44 AM

Mom and Dad: Scott E. Fahlman, Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University

First pic (a.k.a original smiley message): Can be viewed here

Smiley lore in the words of proud parent: Here

Original creator: Forrest Gump (atleast according to Robert Zemeckis)

Aah... iodine

My favourite subject has returned...

What would you do if you found out that you were iodine deficient (let play out a scenario, notwithstanding the fact that individual iodine deficiency is neither easy nor cost effective to determine)...

so, you are in the middle of the desert, starving for iodine (and water and food... run with the scenario, folks). What would you give your left arm for (assumption 10001: you are right handed)? a slice of pizza with feta cheese and caramelized onion topping? you must be mad... iodised salt? nah, it will only make you thirsty... seaweed? in the desert?
No, you should never leave home (and specifically, not for the desert) without your trusty (wait for it, wait for it) 20 oz bottle of Iodine Mineral Water, courtesy your wonderful looking-out-for-your-health friends at Eniva Corporation.
$26.95 for a bottle! HA!

Economist Robert Frank @Google

Its 55 minutes long... get out your popcorn and watch some pop economics on Youtube! :)

Its 9 O clock on a friday...

...and I am still in the lab...

Existential Questions no 1: Why?
Existential Questions no 2: What is the learning curve for someone my age?
Existential Questions no 3: Why dont I get on with the powderin' of rat livers instead of posting on my blog?

Partial answer: I aim to be lab work free by midnight tonight.... weekend plans include a trip to Vermont... Bob left his Infiniti with me, for safekeeping! (Hahahaha... ) I am going to let 'er rip on Route 2 on the way to Vermont on Sunday... If you read my obit sometime next week, be assured I went out in a blaze of glory with a smile on my face! (j/k - but i will still put the Infiniti through its paces... on a short drive it handles like a luxury car should...)

All is not lost...

If this man in France can survive for as long as he did, then I can breathe easy about my future! hahaha...

Tip: Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution who is "second-hat-tipped" by Winterspeak

Moving...

This blog will soon move to Brookline Village... nope, that's not right... the blog stays where it is, the blog author moves to Brookline Village on September 1! I will be back...

What would you do if you got $500?

Tyler Cower, a practical economist, believes that money to individuals makes more sense than through foreign aid (read government bureaucracy). To back this up claim, Tyler will send one Indian $500 and five others $100 each through Western Union. This is in alignment with the principles he writes about in his new book, Discover Your Inner Economist. Those aforementioned principles are:

1. Cash is often the best form of aid.
2. Give to those who are not expecting it.
3. Don't require the recipients to do anything costly to get the money.

Why India?
To no surprise, he loves the country! In his words, "been to India twice and both times I have been received with the utmost hospitality and enthusiasm. I loved the food, the music, the diversity, and the more-than-occasional chaos. Most of all I loved how the people engaged me so directly, and how every moment was so full of human drama and stories."

What do you do?
Find a deserving Indian, and follow instructions on his blog

NOW!

"Careful with that axe, eugene."

...yes, and that liquid nitrogen is badass, only watch out for its cool sting!

So, the key to crushing rat brains into a fine powder is to render them stone-like so that a mortar and pestle can be put to good use! What is the best way to instantly render something to stone, apart from Basilisks?
Enter left: Liquid nitrogen

Ta-daa! Liquid Nitrogen
oh yes, at a boiling point of 77 K (-196 °C or -320 °F), you can say that it is a cool dude!
I used a lot of liquid nitrogen over the last few days... enough to power a mini-AC/DC concert. I used cryo-gloves and protective eyeglasses, for most of the time (i looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself). When apportioning the crushed powder into small plastic storage tubes, the cryo-gloves turned out to hamper more than help. So I had to take them off, and depend on my triple-gloved left hand (yes, lessons well learned from the ole days of surgery and urinary iodine analysis) to hold the mortar and pestle while a spatula in my triple-gloved right hand (i support equal rights for both hands - pun unintended!) scooped brain powder into the tubes. Initially, my fresh virginal cutaneous surface ("skin" to you laypeople) endured the cold very well. Aaah, the misinformation and deception that is a cutaneous receptor! It flattered to deceive. By the fourth day, I had blisters on my pinky and ring finger, and rosy spots on my palm where there is evidence of light cryogenic burns. "band-aids wearing" has been added to my morning preparation. :)
This morning, i decided that to follow that old adage about prevention, pounds, ounces and cure, and adorned my fingertips (all but one finger, which was left free to be employed in "emergency signage") with "protection" ;) hahaha

hence the look below,



I haven't photographed the palmar surface with its rosy spots, that might put you off that muffin that you are eating ("Step away from that fatty (or low-fat, if you are that way) snack right now!") :)

*sigh*

Another day, another 30 rat brains ground to a fine powder... at least this has a purpose (i hope!), unlike the fate of their brethren!
On an unrealated note, Monique and Jerry have decided to open their house in Concord, and the pond next to it, for fun n frolicking... "Sun, Swim and Sweets", they call it...
White Pond 2007 be a sequel to White Pond 2006.
Pat and Lori, we will miss you...

Harry Shearer

Harry Shearer is a funny guy. Even before he was well known as the voice of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Lenny Leonard, Principal Seymour Skinner, Otto Mann and Rainier Wolfcastle among others, on the Simpsons show, he was involved in creating , writing and starring in "This is Spinal Tap", a classic rock mockumentary (one of my favourites). He is also extremely smart. He won last night's (August 3rd '07) face-off on Celebrity Jeopardy (yes, yes, I am a nerd, I do pretty well, even though some of the categories are way out of my field) against Soledad O'Brien and Isaac Mizrahi.
Here's Harry playing a familiar character....





If you are a link-person, you can follow it at No Cooler for the Scooter
From the site:
"No Cooler for the Scooter
Description: Dick sings one for his Libby, and one for the road."

Some economists fib?

...really? Who would have thought that?
Foreign Policy looks at 5 myths, if you will.
Looks like a 2 plus 2 can sometimes be shown to equal 7. Some economic food for thought.

Tip: Dani Rodrik

Maybe I should become a writer...

Thanks to Dr Sood, my mentor in Endocrinology from AIIMS (that's the much venerated, much hollowed...oops... hallowed "All India Institute of Medical Sciences" in New Delhi, where I whittled away a significant portion of my productive life!), I have been invited to co-author yet another chapter on iodine. Super! After one book (look for No.5 in the National Health Programme Series - yes, yes, I am relegated to a number!), and a couple of chapters in the "Big Book" (which made me famous among the 30 odd people who actually bought the book), I am now embarking on another chapter, this time documenting the endocrine effects of salt iodination. I aim to use high faultin' words and phrases like plasma inorganic iodine and radioiodine kinetics to show that I can slang with the best of 'em! In my iodine tinted world, I am a fabled warrior, armed with nothing more than my wits and an unending supply of iodine replete salt, which I tend to throw over my left shoulder (uh, or is it my right?).

J K Rowling, you had better watch out... wait... isn't she finished with writing? Awright, Stephen King, keep an eye on your rearview mirror, 'coz I am gaining on you!
Teaser trailer: My next book will be set in the land of vitamin B12!

PS: Didja notice the subtle pun in "embarking on another chapter"... nope? no worries - thank you, come again!

Adventures of a Lab Rat. Subtitled: Why me?

"Gotta stay awake, gotta try and shake of this creeping malaise
If I don’t stand my own ground, how can I find my way out of this maze? "

- Pink Floyd
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) from "Animals"

For the last month, I have been working in the Neurocognition Laboratory of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Ageing at Tufts University (And no wisecracks, please, about me discovering cognition,finally, or "coming to my senses"). Ergo, the lack of posts. I am trying to refine my hypothesis; let me rephrase that - I am trying to figure out what my hypothesis will be; i am immersing myself in the lab to get oriented with, and learn more about, lab techniques, pick up skills in hitherto unheard of (atleast in ordinary everyday science lives) tests like genotyping, and generally bring some hilarity into the lab atmosphere. I have also been a not-so-proud active participant in the "sacrifice' of 60 rats in two batches of 30 each. The experiment involved seeing the effect of various diets on membrane lipids in various organs, and blood. I remember the rat experiments in school, and the heart and nerve physiology experiments in the torture chamber called "Medical Physiology Lab", and these experiments, which details I will not divulge as I have blocked them out from active memory, fall in the same category. These noble souls have given their lives for scientific progress. They, and their species, will not be forgotten. Here's looking at you, Rainy!
On a cheerful note, when I am not lab-ratting (yes, that is a verb!), I hang out with a cool group of people, enjoying their company, as I hope they enjoy mine.
~Still Alive and Kickin' Lab Rat
PS: I am assuming that the smart readership of mine (all 10 of you; Yay! up from my last census count of 6) must have already discovered the obvious link between my post title ("rat") and the line from Dogs ("maze")... hahaha... but it goes deeper than that... i am talking about a metaphysical maze, and my path forward...if you figure that one out, do send me a telephatic message

Interesting ... and a message

Following sound advice from Big Brother, I started using Google Reader as my choice of an RSS Aggregator. I follow Foreign Policy analysis, Development Economics, US Food Policy, Medicine, News , NewYorker, blogs from family, friends, friends of friends, people I haven't met (but would love to meet), people I have met and would love to meet again, and also a random funny comic strip to balance things out.
My morning does not begin unless I have read through these, even at the cost of less sleep. I was looking at some of the time saving tips that the Reader offers, as time is limited with me, notwithstanding that I will live to be 86 years.

I came across this:



Curiosity killed this Cat! So, I added Next to my bookmark, opened my reader, read all the unread posts, and then clicked the Next on the bookmark to see what would happen. I got this message:


hahahahaha.... alright, I am a sucker. I am going to click on the End of the Internet. What will happen if I reach the edge of the world? Will I fall off?

Nope, I now know that at the End of the Internet, I will come head to head with another funny person! I love it. Okay, Harry Potter, my time is yours now! :)

What happened...

Follow the pictures, and fill in the blanks to create your own magical fairytale wedding story...








And....
Find the needle in the haystack...rather, find the needle and then the haystack...

Coming soon...

... when I have time...
1) Photoblog of "Adventures in Discovery Park" (Not quite Jurassic Park, but it had its own thrill)
2) Lake Washington Kayak-King (Nay, no names will be taken, atleast not in vain)
3) JetBlues a.k.a Return of the Prodigal Son (from Seattle)

Eventful...

...to say the least....

It's 9 pm in Seattle. I am sitting on Kelly's balcony, watching the sun set on Mt Rainier, digesting the quick indian dinner that I made for us (Krish, you missed out on this one but, lose not your heart, tomorrow is our night!)

Big Event No. 1: Pat and Lori got married

Big Event No 2: Pat and Lori got married



alright, alright, the wedding pretty much dwarfed everything else... And to Big Event No 3: I danced at the reception (Yep, all of the two left feet me)
Pat, in his inimitable style, made a presentation of his and Lori's life - funny, poignant, and memorable... and we all featured as the supporting cast; Thanks to our adventures at the Ben Gurion Airport, I got the honor of being represented as a video clip :)
On a related note, the Seattle Times reported that 37000 couples got married on 7/7/07 - i hear that particular day was lucky both from a religious as well as a cultural perspective... I know of one couple who won't need luck :)
It has been a whirlwind visit - Seattle, Redmond, Pasco, Kennewick and Seattle again in 3 days! A shoutout to Kelly, Donna and Krish for making it happen...
I am off to adventures galore, as Krish and I "paint the town pink"(His words, not mine - I prefer the colour red).
Toodles...

Fourth of July

This was my second Fourth of July in Boston, in three years!
Last year, Pat, Lori, Kelly, Char and a bunch of us headed out to the top of the Tisch Library on the Tufts Medford Campus to watch them from afar. Someone had brought a radio and we even got to hear Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture as the fireworks took off.
Since the last fourth of July, my year has been something of a trough on all fronts , plunging down, rising a bit, dipping for a bit and then plunging even further! Pretty much the toughest year of my life, notwithstanding Year 1 (Oh i forget, that wasn't difficult for me, it was hell for my mater and pater!).
I put a tombstone on that year with a fantastic evening with Noah and Dora, Bob joining in as a late guest. Nothing spectacular, we saw a cute rat movie "Ratatouille", sneaked in our homemade popcorn and raspberry lemonade into the theater, made our own pizzas for dinner, and watched the fireworks on TV :) . To top it all, Nikhil is born
Off I go to Seattle, to meet with the ole Gang, and to "ride with Krish"

Nikhil is born...

Another star is born!
Nikhil Srinivasan was born at 12.21 AM on the Third of July 2007. Mom and baby are doing fine. Big Brother Adarsh is excited about his arrival, and refuses to leave his side. Dad is efficiently managing the whole show, losing a lot of sleep but not showing it.
Yay! I am an uncle again!

Maine...

If you heard that there was a Vitamin B12 conference that had a session in your subject of interest, you would go, right? Even if the conference was a retreat, being held in a sort of "removed from the mainstream" location, and it would be really a tight schedule, given that you are headed out to Patrick and Lori's wedding in Seattle next week. Would you? you bet!

Update: I forgot to add that Bush and Putin are meeting 10.4 mi (~17 mins drive) south of where I am headed; I presume that a single brown male travelling alone would be searched and followed, both by the Secret Service and the KGB. So expect stories about this journey. Fun!

What happens in Vegas...

How has Vegas grown from 1937 to 2006?
Trulia, a real estate search firm, has this cool animation showing exactly that.

Source: FP Passport

Oye, friends...

I spent the evening with Amar, he of the Joslin Clinic fame. We didn't do anything spectacular - dined at Rami's in Brookline, watched a movie at Fenway, and talked... mostly talked. That felt nice. It was good to talk to someone who knew where i came from, where i was going... kosh, wither thou? it's been too long . The reason why they did not base inspirational movie scripts on our (Amar and mine) friendship in the med school days was because we weren't particularly close. We knew each other, and of each other, and I was always the "different" (read weird) kid who hung out with the engineers. But ever since my move to Beantown, we have hung out more often than in all of our medical days! And enjoyed hanging out. Amar used to travel across town to meet up. He trekked across every Sunday (almost!) to watch the NFL on my TV, patiently explaining to me that the "reason why they do not go for an offensive game on the fourth down is because they want to play it safe", and more answers to other asinine questions of mine... i still say that the offensive linemen should pull down the quarterback's pants while he is throwing, which sneaky strategy will work to a team's psychological advantage... Our times together involved talking about life, sports, molecular diabetology, and at some point, we watch a movie! good times...
These thought ran through my head when I was talking to my friend J about.... friends... with whom we are in touch... and i was telling her that my first response to a "need to talk" is to dial India! Why is that? Is it that it is a hardwired response? With the time difference, it can get difficult, but i cling to it (in a good way!)... As much as i love talking to folks back home, I also have close friends here that I can talk to just as easily, and I do talk to them... And my mentors are my best friends!! sharing my times of sadness and joy, of failure and success, of paradise lost and paradise regained, I am here now...
Hurrah for Amar!

Of intentions and results...

Economics has the "Law of Unintended Consequences";
Medicine has "Idiopathic" cause for a disease;
Budgets have a "Miscellaneous" line item;
What term does Life have to qualify the inexplicable or the unexpected?

When we set out to do something, and it never seems to work, do we give up with "It's my fate" or "It's my destiny" or "I am just not good enough"; When do we know its time to cease, to "realize" your weaknesses, to know when you are batting out of your league? Can we rise above our deficiencies (and million of dollars have been spent and made on that premise), and what does it take (Ditto on the millions here too!)? Books just don't cut it, they can never adequately describe the heartbreaking failures or the deep soul searching that one must go through before realization hits home...
When there is so much to achieve, so much at stake (not just in your life but in the lives of so many others), can a failure (or two) be the reason to stop and say, "no more"... Can I rise above the ego bruised by failure, and recognize that mid-course corrections are the need of the day, not a change of course... I have had it easy so far; are recent events the evidence of my cumulative difficult moments hitting me at the same time? Or was Peter right? I can only rise to the highest level of my incompetency? Jim calls it a "blip", and I trust his judgment implicitly, as mine is a bit screwy right now... *sigh* What does it take to do the good that you want to do? *sigh again*

Watch this...

...


Or you can follow the link, if you are that way...

When thing change...

When things change... in my playlist...

So... I am sitting at home, working on this survey instrument that was due to be edited 2 weeks ago... Jim probably thinks I am the worst student ever... I wonder why I took so long; its not like I was too busy blogging to write!! My lazy Jeans seem to have kicked in over the past year, and they feel spray painted, hard to remove.

I finally finished editing it, and as I was finishing up, one of my old faves came on in my playlist - Alannah Myles' Black Velvet. On the spur of the moment, I wrote this parody set to the same tune...

To the tune of Black Velvet

Blog Omelet

My blogging's in the middle of a dry spell.
So I started up the computer nigh.
Got my Netgear blinking its blue light.
And my nerdy soul giving a long sigh.
If I could boil words, knew how to fry, everything.
Always a scramble, but I'm left longing for.

CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

Last year long, Its like I have been in a cave
Like a nomad, living on the wild.
A writer's block, a fear that made my doubts unfurl
family and friends helped my ascent from ruin
The harder i climbed, it felt so good, mo matter if I am blue.

Always a scramble, but I'm left longing for.

CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

Every word of every song that he sang was for you.
In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon,

What could you do?
CHORUS:

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

A Blog Omelet and that readers' smile
A Blog Omelet that makes one sit back and cry
A new writing style that will cross the seven seas
A Blog Omelet, if you please.

...If you please
If you please

Good deed for the day...

"It was a dark stormy night...."

No it wasn't... 'twas a cold and dreary morning in Jamaica Plain. I was walking to the T when I espied a cute furry animal ahead of me. It was a golden retriever who seemed to be going upto the door of all the houses on the street, sniffing around, walking out, and then onward to the next house. He seemed lost. You would think that a golden "retriever" would not have any issues with finding his way home. As I walked past him, he gave me the "puppy dog look of hopelessness". Anyone who has been on the receiving end of the puppy dog look of hopelessness will testify that its effect is immediate, and your invovlement in erasing the look from the doggy visage is a "lock-in". I went upto him and he immediately sat down and shook my hand. I kid you not, this dog was a player, "stringing my emotions with his actions"! Obviously, his training to retrieve consisted of finding the nearest human with a GPS and then cutely rolling over for you to scratch his belly. well, with me , all he got was an easily influenced human with a phone (I am thinking of getting one of those GPS phones - "Take a left in 20 yards and you will find a public restroom").

Someberly shaking hands with the mutt, I tried a variety of names, checking to see if he responded to any of them. Jake, Buddy, Cody, Duke, Hunter, muzzles, Tiger, rex, hobbes, went by with nary a bark out of him. I found a phone number on his collar, which turned out to be the Quincy Animal Hospital. I called them, gave them his collar ID and they said they would ask the owners to contact me. I waited for 10 mins, entertaining the dog with my antics and trying out new names. I found that he responded best to "Good Dog" , so he was renamed by me at the intersdection of Woodside Av and Washington St in Jamaica Plain. I got a call from the owner, and she came to pick him up. I found out that "Good Dog" would need to be changed to "Clyde".
Clyde is now safely ensconed at home (his home). May he have many more adventures in his life.

FP Passport

I am now an avid follower of the FP Passport (Foreign Policy Passport), a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy . One of the links in todays daily feed seemed interesting in that India did not figure on the US map. A closer look at the source confirmed it. Hmmm...

iRack...hahahaha

iSee it all...



Sat-ire, Sun-ire, Exp-ire!

The clip is here

Its all going down the Youtube...

... my only distraction while studying...
this guy is a fine copycat...



You can find it here

More Frank Caliendo here , here, here, here and here

America's Next Top Statistical Model

I get a call from Jess, who was excited about this idea that has been conceived by her friend Andy. Andy who goes to the Harvard School of Public Health wanted to spoof the show "America's Next Top Model" and make "America's Next Top Statistical Model"!! Given that I am used to making the most pathetic statistical puns, even in Data analysis class, Jess thought that I would enjoy getting my hands dirty with this... and she was right... we sat together one sunny Sunday and made the whole thing!! it was great fun!
Andy got together a class cast to act out the characters and with about 6 practice sessions, they were ready... cool... i added background effects and we were good to go for Harvard School of Public Health's International Night! they were amazing on stage and i loved watching the abstract puns come to life...hahaha

The background of the play:
There are 8 statistical models and the compere, Ion T-test, gives them a task based on which one will be chosen "America's Next Top Statistical Model". The email (ahem..."STATA MAIL") outlining the task:
Hey Ya’ll, I need some help. My grandmother has come down with some serious heartache. I need you to help me lessen her risk. So ladies, it’s time to pimp my relative’s risk. In this challenge, you will each have to build a model that will fill her aorta and balloon her heart with love. Please turn your output and syntax into me by midnight.
In Confidence,
Ion T-Test

the fun begins soon after!

This is not the whole play and it is missing bits, as you can make out, and this was shot with a handheld so the audio is a little screwy, but enjoy it all the same!




It links here

Mascot? Cute, cuddly, fun?

Some of them, maybe.... but not all...

I loved Wired's presentation of Mascots Gone Wild!!

"Your so vain, you probably think this post is about you..."

... or maybe it is!
Have you had the the following phrases, or modifications thereof, thrown at you?
"I think your a great guy [/girl]"
"You're doctors scribble is atrocious"
"You're contribution is acknowledged"
Do not forget the classics: "Their is no one who can beat me"; "Dogs love to chew on they're bones"; "Is there meeting going to be long?"

hmmm...Who do people spell by pronunciation alone?... I wonder if this is why i run across personal (as in HR), dumbell, its vs it's, momento, greatful, bellweather, pronunciation, among others, so frequently!

Here's a WikiHow step-by-step instructional page on getting your yours right!!

I like the use of thereof, wherein, notwithstanding.... even if it makes no sense to use it... especially if it makes no sense to use it...

If I were in trouble....

...I would call ADG!!!




Or you can check it out here

UPDATE: This video has been taken off Youtube... pity... they cant take a joke anymore!!

Who's your Lead User?

Last week I bumped into an Innovation researcher, Eric Von Hippel, who is a Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management. I heard some fascinating case studies of "pioneers" or "lead users", leading me to look it up, and after the journey of a thousand steps, I found myself becoming a member of "The Instructables Squad"
And look, they have a "Not Liable" section too!!!! hahaha

"Yesterday was 1st April, so???"

"...and what has that got to do with your post?"
"oh....Aaaaaaaahh"

Ironically, the bait reeled in all of the fish only on the 2nd! *ow ow ow* Ducking from all the brickbats thrown his way

Thank you for the wishes and the request for details! I will take a raincheck on answering them! For there exists no question without an answer... unless it is "What is the meaning of life?"... hang on.. thats taken...42, isn't it?

"I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes..."

... "Love is all around me, And so the feeling grows..."

There's a song always running through my head, I skip when I walk, whistle a melodious refrain while on the train, smile at strangers, have this goofy happy face look all the time, I can't stop thinking of this one person, she finally said yes....
Diagnosis, Doctor?

hahaha... this is hilarious...

If you are having trouble opening it, follow the link

Wow, it's been a long time...

A flavour of soon-to-be-released stories...
1) Vitamin B12 kicks ass!
2) Adventures of Moving Out - A Remote Story
3) Ajanta - the Journey of a 2nd century B.C. to the 21st century
4) Delhi Roundup
5) Aah... to be with family and friends again!
6) Bike Angel
7) Back in Boston *sigh*

"It's all coming back to me now..."

...Or is it that I am going back?
A bit of both...
My next post will be after a trip across a few seas, if not all the seven!
Boston-Mumbai-Lonavla-Aurangabad-Mumbai-Delhi-Bangalore-Vellore-Bangalore-Boston...whew!!!

A Big Thank You...

...to the Shpais - Girish and Lo, Ram and his deep pockets (and I am not talking about Pita bread), Dinu-saurus and Lachchho...
...for keeping me afloat, solvent... for "dissolving" my pain :)

Eventful...

January 2005: Jim and the impromptu "Happy Birthday to You" rendition @ the Boston Symphony Hall!
January 2006: Ram, Shalini, Nunu and Sitara @ Asmara... and how did that cake get sneaked in under my very nose? Brilliant!
January 2007: Afsan, Tara, Mo, Caroline, Magali, Greg @ Addis and follow-up with sleigh bells, cake and "funny" (atleast he thought he was!) waiter at Garden of Eden....

Yep... eventful, wonderful, memorable... its what we live for, isnt it? *sigh*

Weirder and Weirder!

I have been tagged by the Axe-man and I have the not-so-popular task of listing 6 things about me, myself and me that make me weird... so here goes
1) I go banannas over banannas but I sometimes whine for grapes
2) Sense of humour
3) When I am on a concrete sidewalk that has been carved into large rectangles, I have to take equal number of steps on either side of the dividing line... it drives me nuts when they cant ensure that the rectangles are of the same size as then my walking pace varies... go figure that weird one out... something to do with my mathematical brain (i dont want to hear any more talk of "huh? dude, you? brain?")... and its not OCD if it does not happen all the time; only the times when my blood serotonin levels are the 98th percentile values
4) I have the attention span of a baby dodo (No backtalk about - "Did you know that the reason why the dodos went extinct was because they experienced an acute shortage of baby dodos?")
5) I want to join the Space Monkey Mafia :)
6) What lies beneath...

The Prodigal Son....

...Returns!

A shout out...

...to the dinu-saurus, who turns 16 today, or a multiple thereof!
Highlights of my New Years Eve:
1) Evening out with Mo, Beaudry and Chris at Boston's First Night
3) making calculated guesses on which part of the Pegasus Ice Sculpture was going to melt first... I put my money on the tail
2) Missing most events due to the really really slow progress of the T
3) Interpretive Dance performance by the Eva Dean Dance company
4) Bowling on the Nintendo Wii with MIT super-geniuses at a gathering
5) Making Aloo Parathas with the aforementioned New Years Eve gang on New Years Day, followed by Monty Python hilarity

All in all, a quiet time!
how was your day?