emerson - words to live by

emerson, originally uploaded by susafri.

A friend on flickr posted this image. Wonderfully said quote and a guiding light for the new year for all of us. Wishing everyone a wonderful and prosperous New Year `07.
*Cheers*

Amsterdamed

Few weeks ago, I visited Amsterdam with a bunch of my friends and I damn I was Amsterdamed to the limits ;))

Just Arrived

Familiar Shot

Oldest and one of last few coffee shops serving alcohol too

Any ideas??

On a boat, some of them look so high ;)

More Pics Here. Anytime of the day, this city has no limits.

Munich News

Lot of you might have heard of the "Free Hugs" campaign, which became even more famous with this video.

It reached Munich on Dec. 16. I missed it thou', its a great campaign with all this fightin and stuff going on in the world. Cheers for the organizers.

Secondly, for those of you who have visited Munich, most probably sometime for sure while walking down the Marienplatz area must have seen an old man playing piano "rock n roll". A thread on toy-town-munich has been started as the piano has been spotted abandoned near the area. More Info here.
Pic. courtesy: jiformales (flickr)

Finally, I made it there

DSC_0063, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

After years of staying here, I never could made it to Schloss Neuschwasnstein. Finally last week, we drove there. The castle's location is just awesome, surrounded by Alps, Lakes, Plains; but the castle itself from inside is nothing spectacular. But again, it was worth the visit.

Time Person of the Year 2006 is YOU

and ME. Congratulations :))

can't get it out of my head

i am not a great shopper, I don't have the patience to go to every store and look for something I like. Since last month or so, I have been looking for some shoes, went to several stores in Munich too, mostly I don't like them & freaking expensive.
Finally while surfing flickr, I came across some shoe pics; and since then I can't get them out of my head. Searched several stores, even went to Hamburg (they have a store but no shoes :)); the only place they are available are zappos.com and they don't ship internationally.. f***; for all that web 2.0 crap and online stuff. **very annoyed**
it always happen, first i don't like & if i like somehthing.. can't get them, as some of you who worked at SCR with me last year might remember, it took me 2.5 months to find a pair of shoes.. same story ..
crap .. crap .. f***
damn, why can't i get them in europe .. any knows any store which might sell them online n ship

not dead

yeah, I know. Its been the laziest time for my blog. There are several reasons for it, being i have been travelling a bit around (Amsterdam, Hamburg, Hannover, etc etc); busy with paper work; paryting; etc etc...

the point of this post is that the blog is not dead ;)

Party Recipe

Following up on my last picture post, here is the one unique recipe to party, patented to the residents of HD Allee, which we made and enjoyed last weekend.

INGREDIENTS

• A group of minimum 30 friends (pref. international), more the merrier
• Beer/Vokda
• DJ iPod
• Sound Blasters
• A city with excellent tram system like Munich

TIME

• 2 Hours

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat at a common place with some beer
2. Move to the closest tram station to get started
3. Board the tram n enjoy beer n blast some music n dance n sing n do whatever
   
4. Try to remain at the rear end of the tram as far away from the driver to avoid any confortation
   
5. Do not remain at the same tram for more than 15 min.
   
6. Change the tram at the station connecting to next tram in some other direction
7. Repeat steps 3-6 for as long as beer n music lasts
   

NOTES

1. Carry an ID just in case, you land in trouble
2. Beware of other passengers
   
3. Don't drink beyond limits
4. Try to have a end point party (crashing party) after the trying our recipe
   

NOTICE

• Try it at your own risk, the author bears no responsibility for anything.
  

ENJOY!!

International Group Challenge

International Group Challenge, originally uploaded by Mohan S.

The Tram Party Group.
I bet no other group can be more international than our group. Lets count the no. of nationalities: American, Irish, Kazakhstan, Indian, Kenya, French, Spanish, German, Bavarian :), Russian, Turkish, Italian, Finnish, Thai, Ivory Coast. Anyone??

I am very much alive!!

Excerpt from Boast of Quietness (taken from The Inheritance of Loss) -
...
Sure of my life and my death, I observe the ambitious and would like to understand them
...
They speak of humanity
My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty
They speak of homeland
My homeland is the rhythm of a guitar, a few potraits, an old sword, the willow grove's visible prayer as evening falls.
...
My name is someone and anyone.
I walk slowly, like one who comes from so far away he doesn't expect to arrive.
- Jorge Luis Borges

Life (author unknown?), originally uploaded by mjvaldez69.

hey fellow readers,

sorry for my absence here, I am very much alive :) & in Munich and connected to online world too. I just realized after a friend of mine mentioned in her email that my last post was almost a month ago.. 4 weeks.. damn.. i think its been the longest time frame since I posted last.

Its not that I had nothing to post, I was just keeping some distance from "something unknown", and trying to keep my mind of it. Several times in last few weeks, I wanted to post but just didn't had the desire & energy to do it. Mebbe its my laziness but its not, I am sure!!

So, whats happening with my life, I will update you all within coming weeks but until then you have to wait. I'll be back!!

Cheers
Mo.

Sneak Preview

First and foremost, I AM BAK; the switch to my internet world is up and running.

Now to some real posting :), we went to see Sneak Preview tonight, like it when the movie is not known beforehand, offcourse sometimes it doesn't turn out right but tonight was like damn, what a movie, just love it.

No more suspense, its called "The Departed", didn't had any idea of it before as regular readers will know, my internet was not working; Its an awesome movie, one of the best I have seen this year, rivetting dialogues, outstanding performances by the A-grade actors, awesome punchlines, complex character drama, and smart & suspenseful. I would def. give it 9/10. And its Martin Scorsese movie, what more you can ask. Don't read more, just watch it!!

What Happened??

yes, what happened to the German Efficiency. My internet is down since 12 October now, and still no sign of getting it back this week. It suc*$ big time. The "switch" is broken and I suppose it shouldn´t take 2 weeks to get it right. I can only hope they repair it before weekend.

Please bear with my late replies for your emails. I would be back soon enough!!

Absent

if you have been wondering where I have disappeared, I am very much on earth but my internet has been shattered, its been already a week and now there is some hardware problem and I suppose it will take a week more for it to get repaired.

until then, bis dann (22.10.2006)

And yeah, thanks for your prev. comments, I would catch-up with all soon!!

American-Spanish-Irish-ManyMore

Looks like the best drinking-party-crazy crowd has gathered in our student-wohnheim; for last few days, we have tried all sorts of ways to drink.

And those drinking card games.. unimaginable.. you can't leave the table without being drunk. And if you have ever tried the Irish Drinkin Games.. just do it!!

We have the Irish - unbeatable in drinkin; then we have Spanish - who can party all night everyday of the week; then we have the Americans - who have all the energy to try everything they can and many more to join the team and take it to the next level. God bless the student exchange programs :)) !!!!

And to make the things - we have the American Moustache House Party tonight - Host'd by THE J :)) .. Watch out for this space again, you don't wanna miss this one!!

Happy Birthday "Little Space"

Yeahhh, its been a year, actually it was 2 days ago (on 30th Sept.), but I forgot it :- Cheers for my blogspace :)

1 Mosaic, originally uploaded by LeoL30.

Its been a great one year of sharing some on my ramblings with you all. Thanks for your comments in the past!

Keep me on ur reading list :))

Being a Gemini

... to be continued

--
I just talked to a friend of mine (thanks to her) and I feel much better now, so I will leave my rumblings for next time!!

Daily Show: Pervez Musharraf

It was quite cool of Mr. Musharraf (President of Pakistan) to appear on Comedy Central's Daily Show by Jon Stewart. And I suppose, he is the first acting president to appear on that show. A lot of american politicians don't like daily show and have criticized it several times. Even thou' Prez. Musharraf was just propagating his new book, which I have no idea about, overall it was fun too watch him with jon and the green tea with twinkie. Its my fav. american news show compared to other american news channel.



Second Part:

actually

if you don't know (anyone in this category) but oktoberfest is in full swing. Been there already twice, both weekends :))

It is one place you should see, sooo many people.. just amazing and the best part, even after being drunk n partying n all, its so quite n calm in other way. Wonder how this kinda of drinking party would happen in India, or for that matter even in US.

And see the pics HERE.

Now we are talking!!

Oktoberfest 2006_ 101, originally uploaded by Mike - Michele.

don't know what to say, just out of curiosity post .. SHE was here :)) and that too in a dindle with a gingerbread!! wonder how many Maß's she had.

ok enough!!

Bonded

Today during dinner, we had a discussion about (its kinda hard to explain the right topic, i'll try) that after finishing school or studies, whether to take the dream job you always wanted, and the job is so perfect that you would be called a fool if you don't take it and get into the real world or get bonded with the corporate world for years or is there any other way or if i can put it like "not to be bonded by the corporate world for years ahead and work n just work n un-knowlingly fall into the corporate world".

As when we are students, we have tons of time to do things we like (even thou' less money) and we think in an idealistic way and we have our own notion of living our life and we believe we will not fall into the same category as others, n live on our own terms.

A friend of mine "stan - his blog here" wrote a blog entry few weeks ago about something similar like how after starting his work, how things start to change even if you don't want too and one has to play the game. I will quote his post here:
--
"Everything with you is all about business these days." Ouch.

It was like 2 daggers in my back. Like Jerry Maguire saying "jump into my nightmare, the water is warm". Worst fear came true. I spend so much time in this skin that like Donnie Brasco, "I'm not pretending to be them, I am them." I spend 90% of my time in business casual now, what do you expect? I deal with shady, fucked up, results minded people everyday. They don't give a fuck about you. I grew tough skin, I had to protect myself. I adapted. Picked up a thing here and there about strategic thinking, debate, and aggressiveness that I use to hold my ground now. A slight bit of selfishness have saved my ass many a time from being abused. The nice guy syndrome. And guess what, its worked. Its helped me function better in the corporate environment.

But then I want to peel the skin off, but it sticks. I never really know if its just seeping in. I get a little paranoid and self-conscious.

I picked up alot of idealism in undergrad, but I've been able to use very little in the real world. Once I entered grad school and beyond, I realized the true power and necessity of economic forces. None of us can escape from this force. All of us must make payments, put food on the table, support the family etc. We all work to make ends meet. Idealism has to wait a little now while I deal with the realities of how I'm going to save enough to put a down payment on a house. And while I think through how best to invest my time and money everyday. The reality of adult life is that no one cares and no one is going to help you, therefore to obtain a slice of that dream you thought you were entitled to since high school, you have to help yourself. And so I work, and skin gets tough. But the people out there are tougher.

"You've changed."

Maybe a little, but not much. Most of me is the same, I just have a better way of dealing with the outside world. Growth is also change, maturation is also change, and those are positive things - it means I'm developing as an individual, into an adult. Change is the only constant in the universe. Allow me to cite evolution as an example. Change is a function of time, and time stops for no one. I'm old enough to know who I am, and those that know me know I am extremely value and principle driven. Those will never change.
--

A lot of us probably think like him including me and I cudn't have said it better myself. Even thou' I think I won't fall into this or change but as he says, one does and its for good if you take it positively but also somethings will never change in me.

So my friend with whom I had this discussion, I hope you (me too) fulfill all your dreams before we all fall into this change n also change our dreams.

--
Finally - Have a great life ahead Nil - farewells are always hard - but we will meet again :)

Highlights

Since last time:

• Visited Scotland a week ago, was dark n cold n rainy n windy
• Have a new blog; not visually, but the back-end has been changed with more features for myself (like the tags etc.)
• If you haven't watched "Thank you for smoking"; GO watch it, its a smart movie; it has rare satire to it, you would enjoy it n would def. make you laugh!!
• Weather Report - Nice, easy, smooth, exposing, pleasant
• Attended Oktoberfest Special Karaoke night at The Arc;

Hey hey baby (ooh aah).
I wanna know if you be my girl. (X unlimited times)

• Oktoberfest is HERE, and beer is in the air;

Thats it for now, more after the wiesn!! Prost!!

Finally - Waiting for the new opening in life

boston contrast, originally uploaded by meltem demirkus.

Recent Fav. of mine on Flickr - 2

Liberty at sunset (yellow!), originally uploaded by bugged out cars.

Recent Fav. of mine on Flickr - 1

Happy 4th of July!, originally uploaded by HELLO, my name is _____..

British Appointment

Yesterday, i payed another visit to British Embassy, for a visa for 2 days, yeah 2 days, ok they gave me for 6 months but i only need it for 2 days.

And this time, i thought it will be much smoother as they have made the overall process online and only thru' appointments. But i was about to be proved wrong.

After completing everything online 1 week before the The Day ie. yesterday. I took an early flight to Düsseldorf and arrived perfectly on time as given by them ie. 10:00 AM. But nothing has changed in their process (atleast from my point of view). The person checked all documents and asked a few things and asked me to wait. The wait was never ending. I think they didn't even had look at application form before, as they were interviewing every single person there and there was no sign that I had an appointment for 10:30 and as its a short visit visa and should not take much time. But somehow, i (and another 2) was one of the last person to sit there and just sit there and it was already 2 PM and people came back to collect passports back (missed some important calls too as no cell phones were allowed). And at 2 PM, which is i believe closing time, without any personal talk with visa officer, i was given visa.

Hmm, so much for my appointment!!

PS: i am not complaining, but i just thought it could have been made much more smoother and wanted to share the thought

Cheers

150 € per hour sleep

needs no more explanation!!

Water on board

Yesterday, was my first flight since the big bomb scare at London Airport and followed by several other incidents of hoax calls, racial discrimination, flights diversions, n offcourse the big change of no liquids on board.

I won't lie but I was myself a bit nervous :-) and esp. turbulances make me more nervous but they probably are the last thing on people's mind these days when they fly. On flight back, i was reading NYT and there was news about how a person was not allowed to board the flight in US as he was wearning a t-shirt saying "we won't back down" in english and arabic. What happened to our intelligence agencies, where is the intelligence for not allowing such incidents to happen. One of the main reason for avoiding the London attacks was intelligence.

Anyhow, back to this post, it was a great flight and i think Lufthansa is one of best airlines to fly with. And just to add, where are all these cheap airlines, don't know where they fly too, can't never find one when one needs them most. And most importantly I took a liquid on board (offcourse it was Water and I suppose its liquid) and it was no trouble, everything was smooth. Why? Because of intelligence. Just because someone looks asian, or is wearing arabic t-shirt or speaking in middle eastern languages or travellin in big groups shouldn't be the criterion.

Peace

August - The Farewell Month

Shakespeare said "Farewell, a fair cruelty" and "God knows when we shall meet again". August was quite a month with so many farewells to attend, which keeps reminding that time never stops and life goes on.

Its been a little less than a year that I came back to Munich and was looking forward to it, esp. with so many princeton friends here and also my old gang of uni friends. And offcourse, i had a great time in last few months here.

Actually, it had already started when i moved back here with a lot less old gang of friends. But all of you and lot of others kept it going. Lot of thanks :). So august was just an icing on cake, starting with Srdjee -> Brad -> Felix -> Grace -> Silvia -> Suleman -> Promita -> Raj.

Munich would never be same for me!!

*Good Luck my friends*

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog vs. Quebec City

this is abs. hilarious :))



--
Update - Sorry the video has been removed from youTube - copyright material :-|

When to marry??

I have been willing to write it for a while now and everytime thought mebbe its not so important. But i believe it has been kinda leaked (women can't keep things to themselves), so before it spreads like wild fire ;-), the story goes as follows:

Last month, I attended Daniel (from SCR, best employee winner) & Lena Wedding at Heidelberg. It was my first time attending a German Wedding and hence I was looking forward for it and was also looking forward to meet some old friends from SCR (Christoph, Marcela, Jens, Kaz n others). 

I arrived there (Molkenkur at heidelberg castle) around late afternoon, all in sweat, it was an extremely hot and humid day. After getting fresh, I was set to exprience a wonder evening. I met few friends, some chit chat, evening snacks.

After, mebbe 2 hours or so, Lena (the bride) asked everyone for a family n friends picture, so everyone gathered around the entrance to hall, to stress the main point here - I was standing almost at the last step - almost at the end (as you can see from the pic below) - only a few more late commers behind me ;)

The photographer taking few shots, readjusting n so on. I was busy taking some shot for myself too from the back. I was kinda in my own world of snapping pics. During the same time, (i realized this later on) Lena was adjusting the group, asking or telling something and somehow older or married people were no longer in group. And then she threw the bouquet and it hit the groom's father. Which offcourse is kinda not valid as per the tradition.

So you see everything is going, and probably any dumb person can understand it too, but i am still busy with my shots, actually i have several shots of her adjusting, & throwing (on flickr).

I am still at the same position, almost at the end. Then she throws it again and this time, BAMM!! .. it hits me (i am still trying to take a shot) and unintentionally i pick the bouquet and try to give it back. But it was TOO LATE. And suddenly everyone starts clapping n cheering n laughing (see pic below). And I was like, ME, ME, please i don't want so much attention (being probably the only non-german there). I had no clue what to do. So I just stood there and enjoyed the moment. But probably the unmarried girls must have cursed me ;))

Now, the BIG tradition rule - I will, or I should, or I must, or I think, - will be getting married within a year. And everyone came up to me, congratulated me and told me the tradition so many times that I can't forget it anymore.

But as i believed or heard, the bouquet is meant only for unmarried women. But Daniel cleared the doubt by saying in his speech that they have changed the rule for me :)) (Thanks Daniel n Lena)

Here is the ref. pic and you can pretty much see the sequence which i told above:

But not thinking too much - marriage in 1 year *sweating* - I truely enjoyed the moment and was quite entertaining for everyone too :).

Rest in short - it was a great great wedding and i enjoyed myself a lot and best wishes for daniel n lena.

But, the marriage story doesn't end here ....

On the following weekend, i was talking to my mom and was telling her about the wedding & and the bouquet story and marriage in 1 year. Suddenly she interupted and said - "I have something to tell you too".

She said - "I went to a guru or palm reader or astrolger, and showed my birth chart (its a chart made from my place, time & date of birth & shows stars n some stuff like that. And he said that your younger son would be getting married within a year"

As soon as i heard that - i was like WHAT!! REALLY!! Noooooo WAY!!

So both events happened pretty much at the same time in 2 different parts of the world - which pointed to the fact that - marriage in 1 year.

I am not a big believer in all these things but one can't deny them too :-))

One last question remains - TO WHOM??

New Beta Issues

I migrated today to blogger beta. It definitely has a lot of new features and better publishing. Everyone must have read of the plus points. Here are some of the issues which I had to deal as soon as I migrated:

• I can't use same browser (firefox) now for both my gmail and blogger account; as my blogger account had to be migrated to google account and as I didn't wanted use my primary gmail ID account, hence I transfered it to my blogging account trivial.space@googlemail.com. As a result, change browser (IE) everytime I need to blog. Mebbe I will use flock or MS writer.
• I have noticed that sometimes google product (orkut) doesn't work so well in IE. I always have problem signing in to orkut (google) and now blogger too.
• Further I have a new age in blogger profile - I AM 250 - GREAT



• Finally, it seems like they have migrated my account to trivial.space@gmail.com (which I am sure is different from googlemail one or mebbe not but i shud check it out). Its shows trivial.space@gmail.com on the dashboard now. I mailed them about it, waiting to hear from them.

Everything else seems to be fine for now!!

Chapelle's Show: Keep on Dancing

Let's see who can dance - People of Earth

asians are left out ;-) becoz I think we can dance to anything :)) Cheers

Golden Red Hunter-Jumper

Golden Red Hunter-Jumper, originally uploaded by Isabelle Ann.

ok, last one for today. Look at the grace & strength posed by the horse. Beautiful shot!!

Cherry

cherry, originally uploaded by gabe.toth.

Another one of my fav.!!

Tangerine Martini

Tangerine Martini, originally uploaded by gabe.toth.

One of my fav. on flickr. What a Great Shot of Martini, love it!!

Testing Meebo

In this Web 2.0 thing going on over us, every other day, the feeds give us new start-ups, new tools, n all things to waste more time ;). One thing which came across today, was a Chat Tool called Meebo, and its like doing everything online, no installations required. One can connect to all possible chat engines (yahoo, msn, google, icq) through it, in one window itself.

Futher, it lets you add a small widget to your blog or website, like the one which I put of the right side (just to test)

Ping Me!!
--
Update (Aug. 5) - REMOVED :), of no use, atleast not my blog. And too many js running.

The power of ideas

TED Talks - here are some of the best presentations I have seen in recent times, and one learn so much about the topic being said and even more importantly the art of presenting.

Here some of my fav. -

1. Sir Ken Robinson - "Out of our minds: learning to be creative"
2. Majora Carter - a magnificient presentation about environmental justice & sustainable growth. Read here at some of her presentation highlights.
   
3. Al Gore
   

I can assure you that any regular reader will def. enjoy these talks and will appreciate them and the several other talks at TED.

Its HOT n Droooooling

Ref: DONATELLA'S NEW SUPERMODELS

--
Update(Aug. 3): Looks like my reference blog removed the hot models, here is the parent ref..
--
But again, Google can get them back, Here are they again :))

Its HOT n Boring

so, I decided (did I??) to take the world's quickest & shortest personality test :-)

Your Personality Profile

You are nurturing, kind, and lucky. Like mother nature, you want to help everyone. You are good at keeping secrets and tend to be secretive. A seeker of harmony, you are a natural peacemaker. You are good natured and people enjoy your company. You put people at ease and make them feel at home with you.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

You Are 40% Cynical

Generally you give people the benefit of the doubt. But there are exceptions. You buy into many of the things that mainstream society believes, but you're not anybody's fool.

How Cynical Are You?

don't know how much is true :-)

PS - we need A/C!!

New Music Search

today i came across a new internet music service called Pandora while surfing on CNet News. Now you must be like, there are thousands more out there, why another one. But this one is different, if i might say, and quite interesting too. Its 'a bit' like Mercora, if you have used it, but unlike mercora, no need to download n install anything & a lot more functions . Also mercora was nice but way too many bugs in the software & slow.

Now Pandora is an online music search engine & internet radio which allows you to play music by searching artist, albums, song, genre etc. and then one can create customized stations of one music taste's based on recommendations, ratings, feedbacks on songs, artists n so on. Its not like the conventional internet radios, where I have no say on the type of music I wanna listen too. And also its based on Music Genome project.

Go ahead and give it a try!!

Melting Mohan

hehe, but its true, its so so very hot here. I know, you are from india n all those comments, but com'on we have fans, coolers, A/C's n what not :-)
its quite nice outside, kind 24 C right now but inside the room, its HOT, n no proper ventilation. When are we getting an A/C??

Conan O'Brien in Europe

Funny Clips of Conan travel,

Conan in Germany

Conan in Amsterdam

Conan trying to find his roots in Ireland

Watch at your own risk ;)

Daily Show: Israel/Lebanon Fallout

And if the last 2 videos were not enough, here is the best - how the american news channels are reporting the Israel-Lebanon crisis and how America feel about it or I should say where they might feel it!! Crazy reporting.. Jon Stewart gives the insight

Daily Show: Bush, Germany, and A Pig

can't imagine bush press conferences after seeing this one, they must be hilarious ;-)), he doesn't just seem to get it :)

Jon Stewart jokes about Bush swearing

As jon stewart said atleast he's on the topic :-))

Links

Some interesting links doing their rounds on blogspshere :

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel - First head of state to do Video Blog
  
• Pres. Bush giving a quick shoulder massage to Angela Merkel ;)
• Zidane headbutt as seen by different people - funny link :)
• CBS new upcoming "egg-vertising"

Indian bloggers - Censored

Since yesterday, there have been a a lot of reporting & talk on blogsphere about the domain blogspot.com being blocked by all major ISP's in India. And it has been confirmed that the Indian Government has issued a notice to block 'some' blogspot blogs. But various other's are being affected too like geocities, typepad n mebbe more to follow.

Links -

• Soon, you may not be able to see
• Blogspot blogs banned in India
• Blogger blocked by Indian ISP's

An excerpt from Digital Inspiration -

"Whoever may be responsible, India has clearly joined the Internet Filtering Club of China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Euthopia. If the access to restricted websites is not restored in a day or two, this issue is sure to gather active momentum ..."

Great Wedding

last weekend, I attended Daniel & Lena Wedding in Heidelberg. And as i said in my earlier post, it was my first German wedding. I had a great time and daniel-lena were great host. Best wishes for their new life ahead.

The wedding party took place near Heidelberg Castle, called Molkenkur, beautiful place. Heidelberg itself is a beautiful city, don't miss it. After a long drive from Munich to Mannheim, I arrived there all in sweat, it was extremely hot & humid that day; so after taking a cool shower, all ready to get the party moving :)

To my surprise, (ok not that much surprise as daniel already told me whos coming), lot of princetonians showed, who i haven't met for a long time - "Christoph, Marcela, Kaz, Paolo, Jens n more" and had a great time with all during the party; great people; great food (veg too, yes i'm sort of veg); great wine; great skits n shows by friends; great music n dance; everything was great :). And this time I was exempted from any speeches ;) and daniel-lena gave a wonderful thank you and welcome speech.

Next day, we all went hiking on Odenwald, it was equally great & the pictures are on flickr. But some of them are under "only for family n friends" options, so if you wanna see all, add me as an important contact in flickr :-)

Speechless

Once again, heinous act of terrorism killing hundreds of innocent people stuck us. I am speechless and have no words for it. Its not even a year and this is the second time, I am posting on "bomb blasts" killing innocent people in India and not just India but there are so many more in thousands being killed all over the world by the so called terrorists. As one Indian poet n lyricist mentioned - Who are these people, are they even humans? How can they justify killing innocent men, women & children. Do they have souls, families, kids?

News articles in Indian press :-

Enough is Enough!
They call us resilient?
Terror Tuesday 7/11

Where will it end!!

Update on Final Post

Looks like the controversy surrounding Zidane taking a new turn, reported on BBC, HERE & HERE, with strong abuses from the italian.

A friend just told me of blasts in Indian city of Bombay, still reading but here is the breaking NEWS on rediff.

Final Post - World Cup 2006

Hallo leute, ich bin zurück - i am back from my mountainous tour of germany :)) (more on that later). First the world cup, which came to a wonderful finish with ITALY winning for the 4th time. Congrats to the italians.

But before that, even bigger "Herzlich Glückwunsch Deutschland" - "Heartly Congratualtions Germany". The news articles are filled with praises for the country, its people, its football team, the arrangements, the policemen, the cities, their love for fans of all nationalities, the overall hospitality n so on. Read HERE and HERE.


As per the final game, it was equally balanced, italy dominating first half and france the second half. And as per the big talk, Zidane Zinedine, I believe it was wrong. There is a lot of talk in press and several variations, some supporting, some not sure, some aganist it. Everyone wondering "What happened to Zidane?" True, he is a great player and also won the "Golden Ball" award for WC'06 but the way he displayed himself on field yesterday, was kinda disappointing for the team & country on a world stage. Also he was def. not at his best in the game, unlike last games where he single handidly took the team till finals with his beautiful footwork and support on field. Many games are full of fouling, falling and fibbing, but a player of his stature and exprience shouldn't have lost his temper, that too for his last international appearance. Mebbe, he gives the reason for it sometime in future!!

In the end, the last 4 weeks were full of great moments of play, great football spirit, great teams and wonderful times with great fans, great atmosphere, lots of paryting, drummin, flags, honking, celebrations, tears, beers etc. etc.; esp. here in Munich and I hope everyone else enjoyed the sporting event equally. So until next time, 2010, keep the lively spirit showed by everyone in your hearts :))

First Ever

ok blogosphere people, I'm off to attend my first ever German Wedding of a good friend of mine.

Pics n Exp. coming soon!!

Till then, n ya enjoy the finals of world cup

Reality Check - 2

A few weeks or months ago, Guy Kawasaki posted about a new VoIP service called jajah; I have been using it quite a lot to call internationally since then.

Few days back, they introduced FREE phone calls to all their members registered numbers, and unlike other services, one registers by providing any 3 phone numbers (like home, office & mobile) and hence one can call any registered number for free. Registration again is free.

To tell you the catch for free calls, as some of you might think, free calls, crazy. But since introducing free service, they have increased their normal calling rates to countries like india, australia, also swiss etc. (as i got charged almost double to call india last time).

Anyhow, if you register, even if you don't plan to use the service, your family, friends or contacts who might be using it, will be able to call you (ie. your registered number) for free. So, to make my life easy, join it!! :-)) and let me know your registered number.

Donuts & Candies

so, all teams or players or coaches I supported in the last few weeks are out of the world cup. The final team "Portugal" lost today to France.

I, with some friends of mine, was watching the game at our "one of the favourite" hangouts in Munich. And if you are in Munich, anytime, don't miss this shop. Its called "Donuts & Candies " and they have the BEST donuts of the world here :) (lots n lots of choices) & now oven toasted cream cheese bagels too and Michael is the best host.

And offcourse, we were supporting Portugal, as Michael is from Portugal and another friend supporting portugal and myself supporting Scolari, but we lost. So now its italy vs. france. To cheer up our moods, we drank (i only had ice tea) lots of beer, gooood german beer. And discussed everything apart from football, italy n france. Kinda boycotting all three :).. The evening ended with discussion about the terms for a marriage and various other issues relating to it .. how many kids, summer n winter places to live, marriage in india ;), s** issues, kids raising, work issues, n more n more :)) and even got rings exchanged (don't believe all i say) ;))

Graduated Finally

yesterday, i went to the university just to check my mails as my internet was not working and while I was there, i decided to check on whether my final degree is ready or not. So went to the lady and asked her about it.

I said "Bitte sprechen Sie Englisch" (i don't take chances with my german for official work)
She said "Naturlich n smiles"
I said "Is my final degree certificates ready or whats the procedure to get them"
She said "did you receive any letter for it?"
I said "No"
(she) a bit confused, but still checks the drawers n said "Can i see your passport"
I said "sure" - here
She said "oh here it is, we must have sent the letter to wrong address"

then she explained some official stuff and asked me to sign some documents, that I received my final degree and that i am exmatriculated from univ. successfully

And hands over my degree to me .. n said congratulations n good luck

I said "Thank you; Vielen Dank"

Just holdin it feels great, NICE :-)) , and somewhere along it says

**Attaintment of this degree confers the right to use the title "Master of Science (TUM)" and the Abbreviation "M.Sc. (TUM)"**

The official ceremony takes place once a year, which is planned for Nov. '06 or so, where I will get something sort of official certificate or so. But thats for later.

Moving On !!

What is the world, we literally have nothing to tell us - 2

didn't had time to think abt the question " What is the world" but my internet is up and running :-)) n i'm back to doing something's on my PC again ..

and germany lost :-( .. in the last 2 minutes.. so all teams i supported are out now, so instead I am supporting Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal's Coach (Brazil coach in last world cup)

What is the world, we literally have nothing to tell us

the topic has nothing to do with my post.. just wanted to keep my readers informed of my absence from bloggin. Last week, i was not in Munich and after i returned, my internet at home was not working anymore (hope repair guys comes soon) and since then, i am strugglin even to check my mails ;) .. its very surprising for me atleast that, without internet, i have rarely spent any time on my PC, nothing to do with the big machine taking so much space of my desk .. apart from watching some movies while eating :)

Today is the big game for germany.. goooo deutschland !!

thats all for now, wud be back as soon as my connection to the other world works out, till then, i will try to figure out "What is the World??"

stunningly bad tempered

Portugal holding on to their 1:0 lead; beats Netherlands in an extremely bad tempered game from both sides.

It all started with the veteran Figo's slight tussel with Van Bommel and it kept on going & going, leading to some interesting ;) moments for first time in this world cup, which was quite an embarrasment for both teams and to FIFA. But i suppose, it was an extremely awful and entertaining game for the fans.

And the referee went ballastic giving -
16 yellow cards
4 red cards

Portugal			Netherlands
	Deco 77 min		van Bronckhorst 94 min
	Ricardo 75 min		Sneijder 73 min
	Valente 75 min		Van der Vaart 73 min
	Deco 72 min		Boulahrouz 62 min
	Figo 59 min		van Bronckhorst 58 min
	Petit 49 min		Boulahrouz 06 min
	Costinha 45 min		van Bommel 01 min
	Costinha 30 min
	Maniche 22 min (Pauleta)
	Maniche 19 min

On ESPN, the commentator was all like against the referee but the players were equally not in control and i think, in most cases deserved to get the cards. In some cases, one can give the benefit of doubt to the player but when they behave like they did in this game, they deserve to get yellows and offcourse yellows lead to read. But it was a high heat & tense'd game, so I wouldn't comment on whether it was referee or players fault. But def. not in the game's spirit.

In the end, portugal hold'd on to their lead to win the game. Even thou', the dutch had a lot of chances and a one man lead (first 11-10 and then 10-9) all thru' second half but couldn't make any goals.

So Portugal advances to round of 8 to take on England, but there is no Constinha and Deco (red card holders) and Cristiano Ronaldo being injured (hope he gets recovered). Game to watch!!

Impressive performance by Germany - WM 2006

Germany went into field with the attitude to be the first in their group and it showed in their game play since the first minute, totally over-powering Ecuador and winning with 3-0 difference. And not only that, they played a very organized and controlling game with flexibility, which they lack sometimes. Germany is very well in shape (& home advantage) to go till the finals, if they keep playing like this :), and must have changed a lot of hearts with their game today and as the germans say "berlin berlin, wir fahren nach berlin" :))

Ecuador lacked in all fields of the game - no defence, no attacks, no passing, no control of ball, no communication, no feeling, no attitude.... this is not how a team should come onto the field in a world sport (goes for any sports). And as i said (on flickr), they still have to prove themselves against world-class teams (esp. european football nations), which they failed to do today.

Evolution of Dance

If you haven't seen this video yet, here it is (saw it yesterday only). One of most viewed videos on youTube (25 million times). All the dance moves you ever want to know, this guys shows them all. And probably you must have tried some of those yourselves too.

Keep Dancing :)

Am I in Munich?

During the day, I went to the city center to get some groceries done and all of a sudden drums beats broke my dream world, which I'm usually in while sitting in the tram. And I looked around, to realize - Am I in Munich?

Brazilian fans (n some ausi's n dutch's) have taken over the city and it looked like a brazilian carnival. Drums beats, people dancing, brazilian colors all over, fans n more fans, amazing atmosphere. Its even more entertaining in Munich, which otherwise is quite a calm city :) After seeing the initial euphoria, I decided to bike a bit to catch the glimpse of Samba Munich. I can't describe it by words, it was great to see such a great atmosphere of fans.

I'm loving IT (..its football, not soccer mate..:).
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Enjoy the pics HERE
Enjoy the videos HERE (or directly HERE)

And if you don't have a TV (like me), Enjoy the LIVE game on internet, Follow the instructions given HERE

The African Brazil, Go Ghana

Today's game of Ghana Vs Czech Republic showed why football is the World Sport. Ghana defeated one of the best teams of the game by shear brilliance and a very entertaining and balanced game by both sides. Czech's made a precipitous start to the second half but it was not enough as Ghana sealed the game with a second goal in second half, even thou' they missed on a penalty kick.

And a well deserved win for them and the African continent. And probably this is one of the reasons, why I am so hooked up to world cup, you can expect anything from the teams playing on the world stage and the one with excellent end-to-end energy wins, no matter who they are playing aganist. Its entertaining, people enjoying, chearing for their teams, waving the flags, honking, dancing, ....

And the ghana fans poured on the munich streets :-)) too, enjoying the great win



On a short note - US did a great fight (after their poor show in first game) with only 9 men against Italy and keeping their hopes alive for the world cup.

Ecuador goes for KILL

The nation which plays at 9200 feet above sea level goes into the knockout stages while playing at 72 feet above sea level. Germany plays Ecuador in the next game to decide group A winner, which most probably will avoid playing England in the next stage. But what a game by Ecuador today aganist Costa Rica, winning by 3 amazingly executed goals by all 3 strikers (Kaviedes, Delgado, Tenorio).

What is even more interesting is that Costa Rica made 2 goals against Germany and yesterday Germany had a hard time getting thru' the Poland defense. While Ecuador easily defeated Poland 2-0 and now thrashed Costa Rica 3-0, very impressive performance. Not even England against their game today with Trinidad-Tobago managed any goal until 80 min. and by all standards a poor performance from them when they are one of the main contenders for the cup.

Looking forward to Germany vs. Ecuador; Germany watch out!!

My bet is on Eucador, I'm not a expert on the game but by seeing their performace today and seeing Germany struggle yesterday; its gonna be the match to WATCH OUT!!

Football Fever

Football Fever is all over in Germany and Rest of the world, and being in the host country to exprience the action live has been great till now. I am myself not a CRAZY fan, but I like the game and enjoy watching the action. And offcourse, I am a "Brasil" supporter, until India starts playing some "out-of-india" league games. But I also want Germany to go all the way till the finals, looks like too much to ask from them right now, after seeing the opening game of Germany vs. Costa Rica and the awesome atmosphere of german fans, the home advantage is on their side. Some pics from the game at Fan Fest München, Olympiazentrum; and fan video of after "Philipp Lahm opening the scoring with a sixth-minute rocket".. the whole place rock'd in

Or Click Here to see the Video

And don't miss my face paint art :-) ..

Enjoy the game!!

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Germany vs. Poland - Tonight - Go Deutschland!!

06.06.06

Guess What?? What a perfect combination of date.

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Update: 7 PM - More on 06.06.06 by Grace - No More guesses

Munich Weather

What a summer, we are having!! Its been raining, cloudy, cold like winter (still wearing winter jacket) in Munich. Last week, I was in Bonn, equally bad weather. And as the weather, life is kinda cold too.

Anonymous Mention

I am getting the returns of spending my time on blogosphere :-), the other day Peter from Blogger for Dummies or Tips n Tricks left a thank you note for linking to his blog. And yesterday, i got my first very own anonymous post by someone anonymous too on Reflexionzzz... by Dexter :-), it was an anonymous post looking anonymously for ME :-). A new way of getting to know interesting people, and I am enjoying my time on blogosphere.

And, following up on my last post for blog or not to, another one of our Munich Co. (actually its mo&co@muc) has started her blog, a dear friend of mine, so here it is Liale Blogs; And she started with a bang ;-) about her article on Sinnbefreit or why do we blog? And also you can read my longest ever comment on her second article which when I read again made no-sense to myself, but now its there "Goal or Sinn Lets ask Homer". Stop by!!

Can someone help me find a flight from Munich to Eindhoven?? Surprisingly I couldn't find one, there are just no connections to Eindhoven, hard to believe, but the closest is Brussels or some strange connection by Air France to E. costing 2000 Euros and taking 12 hours :-)

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New Read: Kafka on the Shore - Very interesting start, lets see where it takes me!!

being more "sinnbefreit" by Sil.

Oh oh, wat a match.. whether you watched or missed the finals of Champions League Match today between FC Barcelona vs. FC Arsenal, it was a terrific game, with FC Barcelona winning. They dominated the game from the beginning, truely deserved to win; Even thou' they were trailing by 1 goal in the first half, never short of spirit and attacks, which finally led to 2 goals in 14 minutes in the second half, perfectly executed... great, i think the game got my spirits up for the World Cup.

Since last week, we (gr., sil. & hr) were having discussion about whether to start blog's or not (those of us who don't have it). Even thou' sil. started the whole thing, and offcourse the credit goes to her or in her own words: "what a feeling to encourage other peeople - think this will be my life destiny and a first step to realize my future plan: being more "sinnbefreit""; one of the others has a new blog, which I would like to introduce here, its by Grace - Friendster blog doesn't seem to have name - CHECK IT OUT, HERE ; in her words: "it's not the least bit intelligent, whimsical, original or classy" but I think, it will become all these as it grows.. great start :-)

f*&$ - my game CD is not working!! i drove the bike 2 hours to n fro to get it!! damn
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New Read: Freakonomics - its all about data!!

US President ~ Oprah

While reading my daily dose of blogs, there was an interesting article on Predicting the Next President - Dilbert Blog , a good collection of candidates who might never win or may be, who knows. But the thing which caught my attention was a comment on the article by some anonymous commenter called jakesdad, an excerpt -

... if Oprah decides to formally endorse Hillary it's all over. she (Oprah) is like "mom" from futurama with the robots - one day she's going to use her weight (pardon pun) to tell her minions to do her bidding... my wife, whom I do love, would dutifully march off a cliff w/o giving it a 1st thought (despite her masters degree) if that were the topic of an Oprah show.

that woman's influence is scarry - ....

(full read - the second comment on the article)

Funny!!, but she has this huge following of ardent fans, who might do anything ;)

Top 10 Reasons

Since I'm on job hunt these dayz and also reading some related blogs like Microsoft Technical Careers, Job Syntax, Being Bold Career, etc.; came across a post on Top 10 reasons by Zoe & Gretchen:

- Why You're not finding a Job and
- Why employers have hard time hiring good talent;

I am not sure in which category I am gonna fall or have already fallen (its been only a month since I seriously started hunting), is it that the employers can't find me or I am not able to find the right job with the right prospects.

Apple Marketing - Reality Check

Apple marketing campaigns are fun, check out the new Apple's Get Mac Ads. They are pretty nicely done, or should I say cleverly done, but not sure how correct they are. One things Apple missed to mention is that "You have to be rich to love n own a Mac". But worth watching. Watch out Apple, hope Microsoft hits back with some Ads of their own.

Also, check Reality Check by Guy Kawasaki about a new VoIP (yes another one of those hot VoIP startups) service by JaJah . Pretty neat web-based telephony service is offered by Jajah using normal phones unlike Skype. Worth a few points. But Skype also has a new Beta version with lotsa new features & with their market share size, similar service would be out anytime. Till then its good service for people like me who still don't have a headset and have soaring mobile phone bills.

Back-up your blog

since last week, i am bit more careful of my blog, I don't want it to disappear or get messed up due to some unknown reasons!!

Article on how to back up your blog !! Save it !!

I'm Back

After the template disaster last week, I decide to give my blog the much needed make-over and here it is, up and running in all its glory :-)

Enjoy!!
PS: Save your blog templates!!

Bad day for my blog

Something happened t'day, while i was posting a new post for the weekend, and when i tried to publish the blog, it got stuck'd and then suddenly everything in it was gone. Empty page, nothing was showing.. all messed up :-( .. black screen ..

After looking for possible reasons, i found that half of the template code was messed up, basically totally missing, and hence nothing was showing up.. don't how it happened, but on google groups someone mentioned that "Templates can be damaged by gremlins (aka Bloger Quirks)".. no clue wat they r..

so I had to opt for a new template (as i didn't had any saved copy of old) which means i lost months of changes which i made in the template :-(( and now its up n running but in stripped down mode ..but as soon i have time and patience, will update the template!!

Save your template before it gets messed up !!

past 7 day news

past 6 dayz

• worryin n tensed abt visa extension (visum verlängern)
• collecting documents n
  
• bank statement's (thanks to who helped)
• visa type, allowed to work or not, how long.. so many thoughts
• to use my german skills ;-)
• apart from this.. didn't do much.. just a few apps

7th day, heute

• 9:15 AM: KVR - Kreisvervaltungsferat (i hope i wrote it correctly.. its a long name)
• 9:30 AM: kunden ticket..
  
• 9:45 AM: passport photo
• 10 to 10:20 AM: waiting for numbers to roll to mine
• 10:22:
  
• it turned out be to quite comfortable.. all in german, perfectly fine, all docs, statements, pic, and there it comes..
  

wats keeping me busy

... listening to 'all sorts of music'
... sleeeeeping
... job n pHd hunting
... xtra laziness
... 24 n Lost
... daydreaming about ...
... future planning
... no social life!!

Weekend News

as i said in last post, zak n jeanne are visiting us, and it was a great weekend, seeing them after such a long time.. even thou i think i was a bit lazy in early morning meeting's ;-)

Here r some pics, clik hier, but they r private.. so u have to join flickr and add me as friend ;-)

Some more pics from claudi, clik hier, i think these r public.. so enjoy!!

catch ya latr..

Final Hurdle

holitas,
yesterday i cleared the final hurdle for getting my degree, submitted my final exam result, also submitted my internship letter (which i thought i already did but my course coordinator said he has no record but i had a copy so i gave it again) and arranged the courses to be on degree.. Hurrayyyy!!!!! .. its feels great and a kind of satisfaction in completing Masters.. even thou it makes me move to the not-so-evil world.. but isn't this what i was waiting for since i was a kid.. but.. ok not but shut.. Next week... i will get my preliminary degree.. :))

i am looking forward to the sunny weekend of Munich (after snowing terribly 2 days ago).. another reason .. lot of princetonians (spl. zak, jeanne n thomas) are gonna be in Munich this weekend and it wud be a big happy family reunion n party n drink n enjoy.. those who can't make.. we will party for you too :))..

Enjoy your weekend and drink a beer where ever you r in this world !!

Allianz Arena

AA
Originally uploaded by Mohan S.

today, a friend wanted to visit AA at night.. so we just walked by it.. even thou' saw it by U-Bahn several times for last 2/3 yrs since its construction started.. but watching it up-close was amazing.. very nicely done!!
Hope to see some game also in it!!