Worst pickup line.... like ever

It was mine. :D

Back in 1992. "So, you take French?"

For God's sake it was only on the phone, so technically I could take advantage of the fact thay she had never seen me! (That IS an advantage, believe me! Whenever I fell in love at first sight, the girl would yell at first sight ;) ) Hmmm..... So that was my line - "So, you take French?" And she replied "Yes." And then, doh! it never went anywhere.

After religiously enquiring about all the other courses she could have possibly taken, and passing a few desperate moments in absolute weirdness, I hung up. She hung up.

However it was my first pickup line, and of course, I did not pickup anything! I dropped some things though.. like my self-respect, the chick magnet image that I managed to build within myself ignoring all laws of nature and common sense. As you can tell, most of my crushes and deep loves were one-sided and short-lived.

My misfortune had to do with me. And my screwed up schooling in a boys' school. Ok, I had no choice there. I'd rather blame it on fate.

There were several other things in life that I myself voluntarily messed up. Since my schooling was spoilt (I wasn't, thanks to the stupid freaking school again) I did not have anything useful or useless to do and resorted to studying. I ended up with a decent score that gave me the luxury of choosing a school I wanted (not ANY school I wanted, IITs, Anna University and the the like got filled like months before my turn came) And that is when I screwed up again. Grave, grave, grave. Chose Mechanical Engineering. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, as if I was born to invent some creepy engine tha will run on water or something. Damn It. Even God won't pardon me for that.

That was Boys II of my life. (Since it involved a lot of 'man'ual labor, it is very uncommon in India for girls to take Mechanical) Not a single girl in my class. I am not saying there were no single girls, there were NO GIRLS. All through my four years of undergrad, ALL my senior classes had samples of womankind, ALL my junior classes had some representation of girls. So I was a loser all along, teaming up with a bunch of other losers who claimed that we wouldn't see girls anyways, since we didn't trust girls, girls were a waste of time, girls were mean and any other false propoganda we could think of to defend our weakness with the weaker sex.

Thats a lot of cribbing. Anyways I have evolved as a better stud after those days, got better towards the final year... On Valentine's Day, I cut out hearts and distributed them to the good looking girls (its very hard to use plural here, but anything for my dear college girls), used the hollow heart shapes to give broken hearts to the not-so-goodlooking ones. And forced a foot long rose to a junior girl, etcetera, etcetera.

During my masters I did a lot better, cut off all my guy friends and strictly spoke to girls. So now I have better pickup and keepup lines but still ain't happening, may be its not just the lines.

2006's Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for

Complete list (Source CNN Money)

Dhanalachumi, Velu and Muthupandi in Titanic.

This is a freaking hilarious version of Titanic in Tamil.

Outsourcing to India and globalization - Discovery Channel documentary

Got to watch if you haven't. Portrays the Indian Tech boom due to outsourcing and resultant US job drought, analyses how it ties into globalization and how the non IT Indian economy is doing.

Heights !!!

Morning on the way to work I turn on 99.5 - Washington DC's best music station as they claim to be. Usually they are okay, try to be funny, have a few wierd characters and stupid games and prizes to entertain you.

but...

Of late they have a competition called "Breast Year Ever" - competitors need to apply online - and the winner gets a breast implant sponsored by the Radio Station. In the name of selecting the finalists over the month of January all we hear is about "b", "b" and "b".

Ridiculous...images of the contestants with their identity concealed.

Thought Wave

Where there is a will there is a cheat code.

What do you think this is?

What comes to your mind when you first see this?
I thought it was a laundromat

It happens to be the <<hard disk>> of yester-generation!

Interesting composition of <<hard disk>> evolution over the decades with pics on CNet.

Microsoft. Tries.

At Microsoft, plans are in to try and dominate two Big Hit Technology Products, one hardware and one software.

Apple's iPod - still in the pipeline
Macromedia's (Damn Formerly, now Adobe) Flash is coming soon as Sparkle.

We all know about the domination history, but I think Microsoft have made better products in terms of usability. I am a web design buff and every time I tried to do Flash, ain't happening because of the complexities of using the program. Swish quickly became popular for the same reason, but the "bundled ready to gift-wrap" approached crippled creativity. So I'd like to see what the Sparkle UI looks like. Seemingly, from MS site, Sparkle is part of the Expression Suite.

Top Brand names of 05.

Brandchannel released the top brand names in 05. More here.

Jan 26. Long Live the Republic!

I wish I was a..

Have you ever wondered if only you pursued the profession that your heart desired? That what you are into currently came from mindless pressure from rest of the world to become a "successful professional"? That you set your foot in a bit too much to take a U-turn now? And your aspirations and inspirations just remain as thoughts and forgotten memories, burrowed just to bring up a sigh and a brief flashback once in a while when you are depressed, only to make you more depressed?

I do have one of those.

I was lucky to have all the freedom in terms of education. I did what I chose to, made several decisions as to what I would pursue myself. Sometimes I was happy-go-lucky, sometimes I messed up, but I've learnt to take everything positively and now I'm kind of happy where I am. Like my job, like my paycheck, peace. What else would you ask for?

Still, sometimes I wish if it was a journalist. Or a pilot. Two professions I would have loved. Or loved more. Just a thought, nothing more, nothing less. A forgotten thought, nevertheless.

Sidin. A blogger who has left his consulting to become a freelance writer like he always wanted. It takes guts, planning and perseverence. I feel good to see him move. Closer toward where he wants to be. Good luck Sidin.

Rest of us. We choose too. Whatever works for us!

Thanks gapingvoid.com for pic.

Seattle Tamil Sangam presents..

I'd like to support this team's Tamil stage play effort.
Wish you all good luck, Lakshmi!

Indus Creations presents
Aranmanai Siruvayalil
- A Tamil Play

Sunday, January 29, 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Sammamish High School, Seattle
$15, $10 (includes admission to other Pongal celebrations as well)

For more info www.SeattleTamilSangam.org
Lakshmi @ http://lakshmir.blogspot.com/

Anna Univ bans communication channels.

One of the premier Engineering Universities in India, Anna University, Chennai has banned the use of cell phones on campus!! Including hostels. Why? Anna University Vice Chancellor D. Viswanathan says "examination scores of students were found to drop drastically due to cell phone use. Students were often endlessly preoccupied with mobiles, "chatting away with friends uselessly''

'Disciplinary action will be taken if any student is found in possession of cell phone inside the campus - By Order' flaunts all over the campus. They did recently confiscate 250 cell phones, so this is no joke, a rule followed in every sense of the word.

This came in shortly after there were strict dress codes for students. Again debatable, but at least given that girls face so much harassment and after the Bangalore call center incendent, it is understandable.

Of course the students are not happy with this decision. I can understand if they are talking about classes and labs. Anywhere on campus is plain ridiculous. Its more than just a luxury gadget these days. Talk about girls carrying it for safety. Hundreds of students who live on hostels away from their families. And in the era or communication and information technology, a total ban sounds ironic.

A focused student will make it one way or the other. One that wants entertainment and just kill time will find one way or the other. This would just provoke the teenage brains to look for workarounds.

How about making bad masala vadas in the canteens so students rather stay in the class and study?

More on The Hindu.
A Anna univ student rants.

Thanks Chenthil.