The Eternal Truth...

There are only 3 ways to write a blog... The Right Way, The Wrong Way and MY Way :-)

Programming Myself....

If you want something you never had, you must do something you never have done!!! - That's meee!!! can't be better:-)

Bing!!!

Working for MS is a big deal, especially if you at their main Redmond campus. Attention to detail is what I would call it. The whole city is thriving on it. And the most important thing is you don't have to tell anyone that you work for MS here. They will know it :-) . Well' from what I have noticed, the whole place is geared up to accept this. Starting from public transits to cell phone dealers to renting apartment's. They just give you a cool 15 ~ 20 % discount by flashing your MS ID cards :-) I think this is where a desi would want to be.

Yeah, i am yet to dig into what else you get here :-) maybe free if i flash my card... But looks like this week is going to be long , windy and cold. I wonder if i can wave my card and wish for a bright sunny climate :-)

BA 118 & BA 049

My flight from BLR to London was BA 118. Bang on time. In craft entertainment was good. And i was seated next to a coochie coo couple. The couple looked more like Europeans and for most part of the travel, were joined as one. Expect for the time when they had to use the rest rooms :-( . I really did not know whether to look out of the window while traveling over Afghanistan to have a look at the rugged terrain or the coochie coo couples. I badly wanted to have a look at the Afghanistan terrain, esp after watching the movie - The Kite runner.

Anyways when i landed in Heathrow, i realized very quickly that there were too many escalators and the design was bad. I made my dad proud by commenting on the design of an "Internationally" acclaimed airport. While nothing on the duty free items that interested me, i quietly made myself to my departure terminal. But i would still give credit to BIAL, because they at least offered me free Internet unlike the Heathrow.

The last leg between Heathrow and Seattle was good. I had this gentleman sitting next to me who was a gadget freak - He was reading a book on his amazon kindle, had a sony psp for his games and an Iphone for his calls. This man even refused to have a drink simply because that would make him use restroom. He would use the restroom when ever i did and also manage to come back to the seat before i did. He was a nice guy. I did have a few more specimens - like the mom who could not control her small kid who was jumping all over the flight, another gal who tried to drag the trolley away although it was locked , a young girl who had problems during landing and take off. Glad the journey ended.

Airport misdemeanor

I had heard a lot about the British Airways flight(BA) that i decided to use this trip to try out this airline. While I packed my stuff, my funda of travel light was soon to be revealed. I had all my items packed into a single suitcase which I would be checking in as baggage and another would be my cabin baggage.

As we were packing, my dad as usual who is always right commented on the bag being overweight . And me being me always had to refute. No prizes for guessing , I won. But mom also had her say by asking me to take another bag along. I knew for sure that another bag means they will will probably ask me to do some shopping and me being one of those guys who have high IQ was quick to notice their sinister plan and said no for the second baggage.

While i was checking in, the BA assistant found the baggage to heavy and fined me additional 2.5K as fine. I was pissed off. ( later i realized that BA was very strict on these things). But I think i carried my charm well. I cut a sorry face in front of the pretty lady and some how got her to cancel the fine, meanwhile i also learnt from her that i would have to be careful, while chekin in from my destination on my return route and there would be no escape from the fine.

Like I said, I always win to loose from my dad. But some how, I translate the loose to read as win and I survive. Who do you think should take the credit here?

Passport

At last my passport arrived. It had to arrive today else there was no way i could make it to my "important business assignment". Monday is a central govt holiday, which means that if it had not got dispatched yesterday, i would had to wait for another couple of days.

But got lucky and now I have my passport. I am sending out a mail now to my HR to get my tickets booked for the "important business assignment"

The Passport Saga

Getting reissued your passport is easy. At least that is what I thought. Since I stayed at the same place from the time of my birth , there was no address change that was required to show to the passport officials. So i had minimum documentation that was needed to be furnished. When I first walked into Bangalore One they gave me a good feel, but after realizing that i still had a valid visa ( for the land of opportunities) they asked me to go to the regional passport office for the reissuing.

So i went ahead and applied for one. It was a pretty smooth process. I choose the non tatkal stuff, as i was in no hurry to travel anywhere. At least that is what i thought. When bad luck strikes , it strikes fast. The next week, my boss walks up to me and says that i need to travel on an "Important business assignment" in the next 15 days. That's when I realized I did not have a passport. And i started to log on to their web site to check the progress every 2 hours, like they update it so often :-)

So I waited for a couple of day's only to realize that my passport application was sent to the police station for verification. The only problem there was it was sent to a different police station which was not under our area's jurisdiction. And since I mentioned it to the cop who called home, he passed it back to the commissioners office. My saga started here.

I had to go to the commissioners office to have that passed on to the correct police station limits. After that I myself went to the police station to get myself "verified' . Sounds funny, but this is the way it works. Again I was in waiting for my file to move from commissioners office to the passport office. Once there , I learnt that it would require another 2 weeks for my passport to get reissued. And here, my days for the 'important business assignment" was running fast. I had no other choice but go back to passport office and request for the passport under the tatkal scheme. Beats me , i had to cough up the extra sum now to get the passport in another 3 days. So in effect, I had spent slightly more money than the fee required for the passport in tatkal scheme and not to mention the numerous visits to commissioners office and passport office queues.

But all said , i just filed my application for tatkal. It's due this Saturday.

Virtues!!!

(I finally tracked this down to the glossary of the Camel book, but I'd swear I've seen it in slightly different form elsewhere.) The Camel book mentions these three qualities:

Laziness
The quality that makes you go to great effort to reduce overall energy expenditure. It makes you write labor-saving programs that other people will find useful, and document what you wrote so you don't have to answer so many questions about it. Hence, the first great virtue of a programmer.
Impatience
The anger you feel when the computer is being lazy. This makes you write programs that don't just react to your needs, but actually anticipate them. Or at least that pretend to. Hence, the second great virtue of a programmer.
Hubris
Excessive pride, the sort of thing Zeus zaps you for. Also the quality that makes you write (and maintain) programs that other people won't want to say bad things about. [Also, the thing that makes you write programs to do something that's already been done, because you believe you can do it better --- Wim.] Hence, the third great virtue of a programmer.

Insert Key

Seriously, what is the point of the Insert key? Has anyone ever really used it beyond accidently hitting it and only realizing it after half their text has been typed over? I haven’t though….

Reality check

As I get older, I get these 'reality checks'. Things I'm doing now, about to do, or have to do just keep  boggling my mind and make me want to go back to childhood! . Is there any such device that just does this?

Dew Drops

Dew drops is a new hotel on platform road , Sheshadripuram. This one was recommended by Dad and we thought we will evaluate this hotel today. Being Sunday,  I figured out it would be crowded and called the hotel to place a booking. The receptionist was a jovial person. We then reached the hotel to find out that they have valet parking. Pleasant surprise as parking in Bangalore beats the crap out of me.

Dew Drops comprised of 2 hotels – one a 24/7 coffee shop called Blue Neil and other a pure vegetarian hotel called Golden Metro. Golden Metro is so called because the ambience inside this hotel is like a train bogie.  It’s like a Metro rail. Anyways there was not much crowd and we we could choose our place. They served Apple Juice as a part of welcome drink . We ordered ala carte. The service was quick and the food was tasty. Gunchi cheese balls in spinach gravy & Golden metro biryani were lip smacking . It was not all that pricey. For a 6 person party it came up to 1.3 K including tips :-) So if you are in a mood to get a railway ambience and some decent tasty food , just head to Dew Drops.

ID card trauma

I know this is funny, but it can sometimes demoralize you. Have you ever lost your work ID  card and asked to cough up 1.15K ? well then you may not be able to relate to this.

I am frustrated and also pained by the fact that i just lost my work ID card( it was a genuine case and well if  you will know that every time you loose something it was always genuine) and the facilities guy & HR are conspiring against me to take a part of my already depleted salary in this recession.

If the trauma is still not on for you, maybe i should try stealing your work ID and then make you pay my fine :-(