Posted by mobile phone:
wordpress mobile plugin really work !!!

First it was search engine that suddenly thought every page was harmful to your computer and now Gmail thinks you are a robot ! That too less than a month apart .

Can we still blindly rely on Google ?!

When we were young most of us wanted to be pilots, astronauts, movie stars, teachers or even archeologist ! But then we grow up, we want to be engineers, doctors, business men and some of us still want to be pilots, movie stars

Somewhere in the process of growing up we tend to stop chasing dreams, we chase things - expensive cars, good looking girls, big companies and money to add jam and ham to our bread and butter. We become slaves of mechanical chores of live, running a rat race to nowhere. And after a few years many of us sit back on a couch and wonder, Did I really want this ? Is this taking me to where I want to go? Trust me I m going through that. That is one of the key motivations to blog. To discover what’s happening and figure out what to do.

I realised I had stopped dreaming and being creative. I have ended in a routine and I need to break that ! So anyways again cutting the crap here is what I did and plan to do every 6 months for short term and every 1 year for long term.

Setting Goals is an important part of this process for me. A few days back I did this exercise. See if this helps you;

On a piece of paper (not gedit / notepad ) I started writing  … any ways will cut the crap and sarcasm now.

1) what I WANT to do in next 5 years. Frankly I was not at all realistic or modest. Anything and everything that came out of my mind
2) Put a * against what already efforts are being put
3) Put this list aside safely

After a break started on a fresh piece of paper

1) Take a simple piece of papers and pen, write down what I always WANTED to do
2) Put a tick against what I have achieved
3) Put a * against what I made an effort but did not accomplish
4) Underlined what I completely missed out on my agenda.
5) Safely put aside this paper for future reference

So now you have 3 lists - Did It, Tried It, Skipped It !

It is very likely that you will landup totally disillusioned and be thinking What the F**k have I done to my life. Now

1) Compare with the first list and see
a) what is common and new
b) what is not accomplished and not on the list now !
c) what never took off and not in the new list as well

Wow! This seems to be getting complex and boring. But this is exactly where the interesting part really starts and see how your priorities have changed.

a) Common List : These are my dreams I m chasing
b) New Items : This is what seems to interest me now.
c) Not in the new list - Accomplished / Unaccomplished / Unattempted - Is something from the past that I have moved on from to something maybe more mature or realistic.

I have not putting up my list so far. I don’t see why anyone would be interested in them but yes I have them in front to me to remind me of where I want to go. I will constantly revise this list for my own good as change is the only thing constant in the list

Credit cards or Plastic Money come quite handy when you are short on cash, its a good upto 50 days of interest free loan. Credit card bills can be a very rude shock if not used wisely.

Its a double edged sword where Card companies make money only when you default payment in form of Interest Charges and Late Payment charges and other fine print. Trust me this process can be quite traumatic. What is even more scary is the fact that your Credit Rating or Credit history will go for a complete toss. Getting a loan will suddenly become a rocket science or the interest rates will hit the roof.

But there are some very simple things I realised and not very difficult to follow to tame this plastic beast.

Must Do :

1. Keep as few cards as you can. I believe 2 should be good, one primary card and other only for emergency. Close any unused cards.
2. Keep Official / Corporate expenses separate from Personal expenses

3. Ensure that you pay as much as you can of amount. Set reminders, this will ensure that you are not reported as a Defaulter.
4. Settle any disputes with the card company at the earliest.
5. Set alerts payments and purchases

Try to Do

1. Not to use Credit card, Use a Debit card / Cash card instead

2. Set a limit on your credit card lower than you earning each month

3. Regularly check your card account for charges that you do not recognize and immediately talk to the bank

4. Keep a track of your credit history if you can

5. Preserve your charge slips till bills are paid.

6. Encash reward points for things you buy on card.

7. Have alternate arrangement to pay off the card bill in max 3 months in case of defaulting.

8. List purchases made on card on a simple piece of paper or a complex piece of spreadsheet

You must not

1. Delay Payments
2. Transfer balance / refinance you card debt
3. Delay payment of valid charges
4. Use it for things you dont need
5. Forget to follow tips above

Watched this movie after such a long time. Wow ! It kind of feels being part of the history.

I still remember the days of Command prompt, Bash shell and Windows 3.11. Computers were so simple those days, look at what a complex mammoth it has become now.

Lets make computing simple.

There are so many news aggregators around suddenly and everyone wants to start one of their own.

All offices have coffee machines and my work place has an amazing Fresh and Honest coffee machine that brews coffee from fresh beans, has fresh milk, tea bags are of Twining has good quality packaged sugar. Net net is a good tea-coffee experience

We also have a cafeteria a few alleys across where they sell food stuff. Recently they have started selling Coffee and Tea.

Surprisingly they have a good demand for it !!!

Has rupee lost its value so much that people dont care for 5-10 rupees at all ?
Are people trying to impress / flaunt anything ?
Is the tea / coffee in office so bad ?

Or is it that Whats costly is Good logic ?

Update : @Amuzing Geek - Caferteria is well inside the office. There is a free coffee machine a few feet away

So this was an opportunity that we had been waiting for months. It was good 3 years back when I had attended a similar concert : Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia accompanied by Ustad Zakir Hussein. Two names who need no introduction were performing in Bangalore.

But the excitement was kind of shortlived.

Bangalore traffic set us back by good 1 hour !!! On reaching we were greeted by the parking attendant saying “No Parking Saaarrr” but somehow we squeezed the little car and grabbed our tickets.

The event was a so called fully covered event and the expectations came crashing down the moment I saw cheap broken plastic chairs as if it was some political rally ! When I had booked, it appeared as if it was in an auditorium. Least did I know that Palace Grounds were only grounds and they would have hordes of food stalls around.

Anyways we sat and tried to listen to the maestros there were people walking all around with food, kids chirping, sponsors playing their messages on the screens and what not.

The worst bit I guess was there was an delay in the screen that showed the event to underdogs sitting at the back row ! A good notable delay of 2 seconds from the music.

After a lot of grumbling within myself I just closed my eyes and opened my ears only to the masters of music. BEST of the BEST were playing in front of us. And in bits and pieces it was an awesome experience. Not that I understand Raags and Taals so well but I really enjoy the sound of music playing and thats what I did for good one hour.

Next time there is a concert out here I am going to do my homework about the place.

Am attending concert by Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ustad Zahkir Hussain at Palace Grounds today evening.

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1477838

Some tools that have redefined information age today for a lot of us and specially me.

- bloglines.com
- wikipedia
- gmail conversations
- firefox tabbed browsing and extensions
- google documents tool