blog-o-mania

blog orkut here and a facebook there.
here a youtube, there a blog everywhere a blog orkut facebook youtube......

I'm simply amazed at the surge in not just blogging....but orkut/Facebook the diff means of networking. A year back, when I was still new to the blogging world, being a silent visitor to a couple of blog sites. I happened to mail a friend whom I had no contact for the past year or 2. So general enquiries led to what have you been upto the past year/would you care to share some pics. The response it evoked was...."Its all there in my blogsite xyz." surprise surprise I didnt know where to look for information :-). It was like a whole generation gone past suddenly.

Rewind 20 years back.."Nobody has time to write(I mean pen and paper), when you are just a
phone call away".
10 years back "Nobody has time to call, when you can simply mail/instant message/SMS"
present --> "why bother emailing/messaging when you could more efficiently nerwork through
Facebook/just leave a blog for the whole world to read".

Why did I think of posting this. Its all been there for the past few years, nothing new there. What is new, is the dimension/spin added by this to - Politics, media, sports you name it.

For instance
- On Facebook, BO has 1,000,400 supporters while JM has 147,000.
Just wondering...can Facebook and like technologies be a difference maker in the broader general election?

- HC is said to have lost a few supporters, thanks to some of the Youtube ads misfiring.

- Back in India, a lot of the top brass of B'wood, have blogs as a way of reaching out to the masses/promoting
their movies/lashing out at their peers. It is become the latest fad.

Till recently I used to think of these as a mere hobby/timepass. But no, they can mean serious business to some. While on the topic of blogging....I never thought I would get so hooked(taken hook,line and sinker
if you may) to it. But I have had the best time blogging, and hope to continue doing so.

One nation in need of a vacation

As my own vacation to India looms around the corner, this article I was reading in VIA mag couldn't have come at a better time.

Its going to be close to 3 years since I last took a long vacation. I think the longer the gap between your vacations, the more the depression sets in and more the craving increases to get as far away as possible. That may be the reason I'm litrally counting days to jet set and be as far away as possible from my home/work/and familiar surroundings. Escapism, you may say. but hey everybody needs it!!

I have always been appalled at the paltry 15-20 days of vacation time offered here in the US. (we still don't take that little vacation we are offered) Acc. to the article on an avg we use only 11 days of the annual allotment.

Even Japanese have an avg of 17.5 per year. The french who gave us the word leisure - get 36 days and take 94 percent of them. In England you get 24 days vacation time.
Acc. to the researchers at NYSU, guys who took annual vacations reduced their risk of death due to heart disease by 30 percent. And women who vacation at least twice a year are less depressed than women who vacation every year. and why wouldn't they be. Studies have also shown that Americans would be more productive with the increased time off. In fact now some companies are mandating that their employees take the annual vacation.

I guess the article made a strong case. i'm def. going to stick to once in 2years trip to India and every other year in between plan a vacation close by.

In short it is not just our right to annually abdicate duty. Its our duty.

Gas Prices!!

Birthday blues??

Can you blame me if I have one!! Strange but true, somehow once you hit the magic number 30 you suddenly feel like a million years old and you actually want people to forget ur Bday!!I'm long gone, past the phase when people ask me "what are your Bday plans" and I actually have one.

2 years hence, I'm a little more saner and wiser today to realise it is just a number. I was attaching way too much importance to it. In fact I don't feel a day older than I was a year or 2 back.

Thankfully it is not hitting me so hard :-) In fact I'm looking forward to cutting the Bday cake with the kiddos and cherishing the great moments that this past year has offered and looking forward to making new memories. I was already in a super-duper mood thanks to the cutesy cards and Happy Bday singing in the morning courtesy hubby/kids/mil/fil/mom/bro etc. You get the picture. Needless to say, I'm grinning from ear to ear typing this blog.

The tussle for remote

I guess in most households the tussle for the remote is among the couples. My home has to be an exception to the rule. For the last 6 years, I have been ruling the roost here, with hubby relegated to the background, where remote is concerned. In my defense, it is not as bad as made out, my hubby is least interested in spending time in front of the idiot box(quite unlike me). So that left me to spend time with the remote.

Even after my kids entered the scene, I did not once relinquish control. Which worked well, considering the disaster of handing over the remote to a 3 year old. The way it is been working is, the TV would incessantly play the kids program but the controls would be in my hands. All that changed suddenly this week, when 1 of my kiddos(M) innocently asks me “Can I please try pressing the button once. I will be very careful” How can you ignore such cute requests. My maternal instincts gave in and I taught her how to use the pause and play button. Oh!! the joys of discovery…seen in kids eyes are really worth dying for. The remote was her next fiddling toy for the next 30 mins or so, very carefully pressing the pause and play and in-turn not letting anyone watch anything in continuity.

This is when her sibling(T) who had been devoid of all the attention up until now, interjected “It is my turn now” After a flow of “No its mine…its mine” followed…..
(I’m just so accustomed to it by now. Its almost like music to my ears) T-> why cant we have 2 remotes(just like everything else is in two’s) My response -> When will you learn to share(lectured for the 1000th time) M -> “but its mine….mummy made me in-charge of it”. You see how the humble requests suddenly turn to control.
Me -> ok that’s enough. Nobody gets the remote except me.

Finally managed to get control of the remote(it feels so good to have it back in my hands). Today’s jobs done…tomo is yet another day and now remote is added to the list of tussle’s.

Memorial day and the sale

This memorial day I was itching to check out atleast 1 sale as I hadn't been to a store during sale time for a really long time. I'm not too bitten by the sale-bug, as in the US you have a sale for every small rhyme and reason. In fact every week there is a sale in some xyz store.

Last 2 weeks I was seeing the close-out sale at Mervyns. Mervyns not being top on my list I just ignored the initial pangs. The third week...my better half suggested maybe I should check out the sale and see if I find something for myself. Last couple of years
most of my shopping ends up with accumulating more and more junk for my kids. One of my kids wanted to tag along esp the fussier of the kids wanted to tag along. That should
have spelt disaster as it very often happens and I end up buying things I never intended.

So my plan was to avoid the kids section and head in a different direction. Since most
shops have the women's section right in front so I thought the plan would work.

Enter Mervyns and the first thing I see is hordes of kids clothes and nothing cheap as advertised. To myself "They really know their target audience" I think 30-60% is a gimmick as most thinngs end up at the upper limit. whatever, it worked well enough to get me in.

My daughter who has the weirdest dress sense for a 3 year old, rushes in and starts picking up the most outrageous dresses and all the wrong sizes. By now we have already spent a considerable amount of time and not got anything done. so I pick up a saner costume even if it means having to spend extra bucks, to dissuade my girl from what she had initially picked. couple of things later I head to the billing counter to see a huge tab.

Worst of all I tried to see if my Mervyns card fetched further discount, only to know I can only use it to add points. That dumb card hasn't been worth a single discount and only adds to the weight in my purse.

Just when I'm getting out of the store I see a small sign in the most obscure places telling me "Close out sale. We are moving to a new location opposite the road". To myself "ok so it is really not a close-out sale in the real sense of the word. and I'm 83bucks shorter with things none the cheaper and dresses my kids could have easily done without"

So much for the great memorial day sale!!

One year and counting

Today would be exactly a year since we moved into our new home. Just thinking of the past year a lot of memories come flooding. It is like a trip down memory lane, when thinking of what started as a casual 'open-house' with no intention to buy, to getting to know a whole bunch of new terms, to going through bidding process, to being proud and responsible home-owners(with a huge dent in our Bank balance).

It all started when the rents in our apartment was on the rise. We were on the lookout for a better apt for the same increased rent.

This is when a colleague of mine litrally sat me down and convinced me abt home buying. Same discussion that I have had with V often, except, maybe it sounded more convincing coming from a third person. V was also bought into the idea and after a few calculations we
were on the home buying expedition. For the next few weeks/months our days were filled with going for open houses, researching on the net and reading up stuff. We also banked on the knowledge base of our close friends who were buying around the same time. Thanks to them we were spared of re-inventing the wheel.

After going through a whole bunch of houses(some shown by our agent and some on our own) --> we found houses that were - over the budget/too old/not a good school district
/high maintenence....in short nothing to our liking.
Just when we were about to put a break on our search, our Agent sent us the link to our
current home. We were not too keen on it, due to the extra commute involved. But everything else fitted the bill so it was not easy to pass.

The first time I set sight on it....It wasn't exactly the dream home I had imagined or read about. But came very close to it. The selling point for me was the open and beautiful re-modelled kitchen and the backyard.

Its been a year since then and the house has undergone a lot of transformation - got a dash of color/remodelled floor/fireplace etc and every now and then something breaks down/needs fixing. It gets quite stressful at times with having to fix one thing or another. Nevertheless the immense satisfaction from knowing your efforts are invested in something you can call your own is
extremely gratifying and makes me completely forget the sub-prime issues or any minor irrants associated with the house. Its simply a great feeling when I don't have to walk a block to get my clothes laundered/when I watch the kids frolic in the backyard/just enjoying the space....I think it more than makes up for the hefty mortgage. V, would agree to disagree on the last part ;-)

Here's to more memories and fun-times.