~~narcissism at its best~~

PS: made this collage in the bus on the way to NYC from Philly :)

~~Movie I watched~~

 I watched an old movie "Groundhog Day" today.Few years back when I was working I was supposed to deliver a project and every day I used to report to client who will test the same. He used to test the application with the same scenarios and due to  mistakes I made he had to repeat the same procedure again and again everyday.  That poor guy told be once "Sriram you are making me feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day".

I never knew what he meant time until I saw the movie today. Good I finished the project before he became as eccentric as the hero in the movie. It was really an awesome movie,worth watching!

~~SD Hanging bridge~~

  I forgot to write about this lovely hanging bridge I took 4S family in a scenic but hidden location in San Diego. Build during 1912 it situated in a posh residential area near the downtown.

Its fun to walk on the bridge while it mildly shakes when we put pressure on it.

Edit:Sheila's post on the same :)

~~Snowwwwww~~

  Whenever it is snowing I used to think I should remember to take camera in order to take pictures but since my mind gets occupied too much studies I used to forget that. Finally when it was snowing today morning I took the camera with me when I walked to college. Normally I used to start just 5 minutes before my class starts but today I started more than 30 minutes earlier.

When I came out the side walks were cleared up making it pleasure to walk. I took a longer way to college via the main campus  leisurely taking pictures.

~~Happy Republic day~~

  When I was a kid every Republic day I used to go to BHEL stadium not that I m keen on seeing the parade but my dad invariably used get some sort of medal gold or silver for the dedicated work he did for his company and I will be the only representative from his family to clap hands when he receives it.Then there will be  events by fire fighters,watch dogs then few dances by kids and once the event is over I used to get the medal from my dad wear it all the to home. Sweet memories!

Now I m in other side of the world watching State of Union Address !

Below video link I liked!

~~Gift from my friend~~

    One of the best friends I have made after coming to NYC is Muhammad from Pakistan one of my classmates. There are many things which we share between us like cricket matches,festivals which can't share with the rest of the class. More than that the food we eat has lots of similarities. Like I have my Gujju cook he found a guy from queens who used to deliver him food every week and his room his a minute walk from our college. Once or twice a week when the menu is good and fresh I used to go his room and have lunch. We used to discuss a lot from politics to sport.

Muhammad  went to vacation to his hometown. He asked me what I need from Pakistan and  as usual I said what ever is good there. He returned back yesterday and gave me a big package , it had  a pull over and a wonderful t shirt ( can you tell me what would be the reaction if I wore that and went out :) ? ) ,apart from few packets of snacks and instant coffee.


Its pity I had to come to other side of the world to know more about my neighbouring country and make friends!

~~New world trade center~~

  NYSE and FED are the buildings very close to ground zero and most of the people who work there have witnessed live on what happened on 9/11. When we are at NYSE the person who was giving the lecture was narrating what happened on that day ,how they were affected ,the consequences they had to face afterwards and how their way of life changed afterwards.

So once I was out from NYSE I decided to check on ground zero and the progress of the new building , it was great to the new world trade center is coming quicker and more stronger. Its already higher than the current high rise building around that area. Once built it would be the largest building in whole of the Western Hemisphere.

Its the place which changed the world we live in!

~~Visit to Federal reserve~~

  Before visiting NYSE we first stopped at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York which is place where the monetary policy of USA is implemented . New York fed  is one of the 12 branches in US and the largest among them,it mainly trades US treasury securities in open market.We reached the building around 9am and we were taken to a lecture hall and a smart person working in fed gave us the overview on what the bank does. Most of the discussion were based on the financial crisis and how fed  managed it. Also there was discussion about the latest  QE2 initiated by fed and how effective will it be for the economy.

(in front of federal reserve)

Once the discussion was over we were taken around the exhibit where they showed us the process of printing money. One of the interesting information I got from them is almost two thirds of the dollars printed in US is actually being circulated outside US. Then we were taken to the gold repository. This bank holds world's largest gold repository in the world around 7000 tonnes. Funny fact is that fed doesn't own all those gold as it belongs many countries and international organization which finds it safe to keep here. The place was safe indeed 100 feet below the ground with different types of securities guarding them. Never seen so much gold at one place ever before my life.

 

As a souvenir we were given a packet of shredded dollars in a beautiful pack. Also we were allowed to take      
books which gave information regarding the fed. So I took whatever they had and found those are comic books which are very interesting to read.

~~In NYSE~~

 If  I had visited NYC five years ago the first place I would have stopped would have been wall street but now I haven't been to the wall street the whole time I had been in the city.Partly there is nothing much to do in wall street as a visitor apart from taking a picture with the bull which would be my last priority.

 Finally I went to wall street today as our director had arranged us a trip to NYSE. New York being the financial capital of the world, the heart of all the action takes place in the New York stock exchange. It was great  experience to be in the building where corporations have come down, people made millions and lost millions in matter of few minutes.First we were given a lecture by one of the staff of the exchange who gave us the history of NYSE and how the trading have evolved over the period of time. There was a time when they had six different floors for trading but now it has reduced to just two as most of the trading are done electronically.He was talking about how the exchange has evolved from non profit to profit and  the companies with it had merged, first with few exchanges within the country and the last one being Euronext such that the exchange itself is called as NYSE Euronext which covers many markets in America and Europe.

     We were then taken around places like the board room,conference hall and finally to the trading floor were millions of dollars gets traded everyday. Being the Friday the place was calm and not much activity in the market but we could sense how the place could become in a busy day. There where separate rooms for broadcasting channels like CNN and CNBC at floor and all major banks had a counter in the exchange from where they executed the trade.The opportunity of opening bell and closing bell each would be given to a corporate,individual or an NGO on every trading day. Today it was from an organization named 'good place to work in' which had few banners around exchange seeing which first I got confused that NYSE has pasted some motivational posters around the exchange. Visit was really  informative and we took a few pictures before leaving.

~~Trip to Griffith park~~

 Griffith park is located  in scenic Santa Monica mountains in eastern LA, its also called as the Central Park of Los Angeles.There are number of stuffs to do in the park like playing golf,hiking,camping apart from site seeing places like the Los Angeles zoo, museum and Griffith observatory. Actually we went to the observatory the day before but  seeing the crowd we turned back.So planed the visit museum and observatory the next day

 The museum is called the museum of American West which has collections from the 19th century how the migration happened during that time and also during the famous gold rush of 1849.Then there were the artifacts of red Indian and a collection of Chinese artifacts who were surprisingly  major percentage of the population during that time . There was a good collection of painting in that place. We would have spent around two hours in that place.

Then we went to Griffith observatory, we could have an excellent view of the Hollywood sign from that place.The observatory had lots of information about the sun planet and stars. There was also a planetarium in the observatory in which we saw a show which was really good.Being a cloudy day we couldn't see on much on the sky but the view of Los Angeles city from that place was mind blowing.Then we had dinner at Italian restaurant and came back home. 

The next day Sukirtha drove me Disney Land where I got reunited with the 4S family.Thus the short trip to LA comes to an end in which Sheila have not visited any of the places I went except for the temple  :)

~~Visit to Pasadena~~

    While I was in Los Angeles we took time to go to Pasadena a small town to the east of Los Angeles, this is the town famous for the rose bowl parade which happens on every new year.  When Swami Vivekananda visited Los Angles he stayed in Pasadena for more than a month, now they have converted that house into a small memorial.

At that time Sukirtha told me about an incident when Swami Vivekananda met Rockefeller. 

Rockefeller gave a large sum of money to Swami Vivekananda as donation which he quietly accepted it. Rockefeller waiting for a response asked Vivekananda "You should thank me". Vivekananda replied back saying that "It is for you to Thank me", meaning he is giving him the opportunity to do good things! For the detailed story see this link(Good Read!)

So for the people helping me in giving pocket money and getting other stuffs thank me for the opportunity I am giving you for doing good things :))

~~Happy Birthday~~

அன்புள்ள அப்பாவிற்கு 

என் இனிய பிறந்த நாள் வாழ்த்துக்கள் !

~~Outing today~~

Since my cook's food will come only next Saturday and I cant survive on Sheila's Puliyodarai till then ,I went to Jackson Heights today. It was awesome to go out with temperature around 22F(-6c) .So I checked for other events happening around that place. There was the museum of moving image which got opened recently after renovation ,allowing visitors for free just for that day.

When I reached the place the museum was crowded and had to wait few minutes in the line to get in.After 20 minutes of people watching in the wonderful weather outside I went in. The museum had artifacts from the production houses sets made in the studio,makeup styles,moldings apart from pictures of various artists from 50s. In another level they had latest technology which is being used where we had 3-d motion picture where the the motion in the screen is captured with respect to the movement of the viewer.Then there were bioscopes where we had to rotate on our own and see the movie,it was funny to see a Charlie Chaplin movie in that. There was another section on how we can make our own animation movie which was quite interesting after spending 3 hours there I left for shopping.

 There was a throwaway sale going on near the place there I got a winter coat at bargain price and then went to Indian grocery store and  stacked up food which might come more for than 2 weeks. Now I m all set to go to college!

~~Winter Vacation~~

The last three weeks flew very quickly and as I m back to NYC. Things I(we) did in brief

24th Dec

 I reached  San Diego on christmas eve and was greeted by choclate cookies done by the kids. 

25th Dec

Christmas day was started with exchange and then a broadway show like musical done by the kids! 

26th Dec
 Shiela booked ticket in advance for the movie manmadan ambu as she badly wanted to see it.
27th Dec
 The day after we went to sea port village and I took picture with kili.
28th Dec
After sending off Asha and family,we went to La jolla beach

29th jan
Started to Vegas ,it was windy and rainy got drenched in the rain, had dinner at PF Chang
Dec 30
Went to hoover dam and after coming back we ate at gandhi's visited two Casinos circus circus and MGM. We also evaluated an upcoming sitcom MAD LOVE which was like Manmadan Ambu.After visiting M&M we had dinner at Boca De cafe italian restaurant.
Dec 31st
 Day started with flat tyre. Left to red Rock Canyon after noon.Sundu following his his google map at first took us to a residential house where we searched for the Canyon.Later in the day we stopped at Bellagio fountain and celebrated new year at our hotel top seeing the crackers bursting at the all seven casinos
Jan 1st
returned back from Vegas.

 

Jan 2nd

relaxed at home ,Sundu started his work and later in the day had dinner at wahoos

Jan3rd

Went for Shopping at the Indian store.

Jan4th

Went for lunch at Soup plantation and then had a brisk walk at a hill park.

Jan5th

Went to Torrey pines beach and helped Swetha to finish maths home work :)

Jan6th

Left to LA

7th 8th - roamed in LA

9th -disney, you know what I got from disney, Since I always think about studies I got a mickey mouse notebook  to take notes for next semester.

Jan 11th went to Rubios for lunch
Jan 12th I made Javarisi Uppuma :)
Jan 13th Hiked the hill behind Shiela's house
Jan 14th Hiked Torrey Pines
Jan 15th Pongal. we went to Balboa park and Coranado beach

Sundu and Sheila used to brag about the San Diego weather whenever they see the sun shining brightly.Yea San Diego is beautiful place where we can reach any place within 30 minutes,have wonderful weather throughout the year and live a laid back life. Such places are also called as Pensioners paradise. Since I m still young its time to enjoy the energetic buzz filled rush and madness of New York city :)

PS:

There was lots of wonderful dishes prepared by Sheila over this three weeks from traditional sambhar rasam to spagetti. Highlight was the pongal with 9 dishes on the traditional leaf. More than that she packed puliyodarai rice which will come 3 days and puliyodarai mix which come for few months!

~~பொங்கல் Feast~~

This was  Pongal feast prepared by Sheila :)

பொங்கல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்

தை பிறந்தால் வழி பிறக்கும்
தரணியிலே ஒளி பிறக்கும்
தை மகளின் வருகையிலே
பரணி சொல்லும் வழி பிறக்கும்

வற்றி வரண்டிருக்கும் தமிழர் வாழ்வினிலே
பற்றி நிற்கும் துயர் மறைந்து பாதைகள் துலங்கிடட்டும்
நெற்றி வியர்வையிலே வாழ்ந்திருக்கும் உழைப்பாளிகளும்
பற்றி நிற்கும் துயர் களைந்து பசுமைதனைக் கண்டிடட்டும்.

என் உள்ளம் நிறைந்த இனிய பொங்கல் வாழ்த்துக்கள்!!!

PS:This was my Pongal sapadu last year and Sheila is going to make sure I m not missing Pongal this year :)

~~Visit to temples in LA~~

 After visiting Getty museum,Sukirtha took me Lake Shrine temple the place where Yoganada Paramahansa lived. Few months back I visited Ellis Island in New York, it was the port of entry for people from all over the world entering into US during the beginning of 20th century. There was a list of famous people from different countries who came via that island and settled in US and one of  the Indian in the list was Yoganada Paramahansa. The ashram was located near pacific palisades which is near Malibu beach.

We were the only visitor that time and as soon as I entered I was captivated by the beauty and serene atmosphere of the place. The place with lots of trees,well maintained garden and has a wonderful lake inside.Once in one would never feel he is in middle of a buzzing city. There was a meditation hall which was closed that time,when we told we wanted go there an American volunteer took us there, he was meta physicist who got inspired by yogi teachings and he is a follower for 3 years. He took us to the main prayer hall and after meditating there for few minutes he showed us around. They had a small memorial in the temple which had ashes of Mahatma Gandhiji and it was one of the first place to build a memorial back in 50's. We then took a small walk around the lake and spent some time enjoying the beauty of the place.

From there we took a drive along the Malibu beach ,it was in the evening sun set time and that was the right place to be. From there we went to the Balaji temple which was located in a small hill near the beach.It was a ride ride with lots of twist and turn and when we reached the temple we were the only one there.  Iyer of the temple was glad to see us and started talking with us for quite sometime. It was he who suggested to have dinner at woodlands and also told us the way to reach it. They also has a Shiva adjacent to it and we went there and prayed at all sanathis. Finally drove to woodlands for dinner.

There I had spring dosai which was something unique and tasted good. It was a long day to end with great dinner.

~~Visit to Getty museum~~

      One of the places suggested by Swetha to visit in Los Angeles was the Getty museum,she said its famous for Greek and Roman sculptures also the view of pacific ocean from that place is amazing.

      Sukirhta was kind enough to take off for a day in spite of her busy schedule. After having breakfast we left for Getty museum which was an hour drive from our place.The museum is located at a scenic place on top of the hill away from the buzz of the city.After parking the car we had to take a tram to reach that place. When we entered the museum we were confused which way to go or which exhibit to look for. Fortunately there was a collection tour which took around the museum pointing out what are the stuffs we need to check.

Since medieval paintings are more colorful and attractive we spent most of the time there. One thing about the renaissance painting are the wonderful mix of oil colors and perspective with which the artist drew makes it look unique. There was a wonderful restaurant inside the museum where we stopped for lunch.After that we checked few medieval sculptures which had wonderful workmanship.

One thing I liked about that museum it was not crowded and we didn't have to waste time in the queue. But after coming back home I was wondering how I missed the Greek and Roman architecture in the whole building.After doing a little search I found that the place Swetha mentioned was Getty Villa and what we went was Getty museum.May be next time to Getty Villa.

~~Journey to Los Angeles~~

I always believe that the the journey is more important than the destination.Trip to Los Angeles started with an awesome train journey from San Diego. Pacific Surfliner is the train service one needs to take from San Diego to  reach Los Angeles.The total journey takes two hours and 45 minutes. The awesome part of the journey is that the train travels along the pacific ocean for more than a hour. If we plan this journey on a clear evening like me, we can see the sun setting into Pacific ocean which is wonderful to watch from the moving train.Apart from the sun there are other scenic spots all along the route which makes the journey a treat to the eyes. In fact I had book in my hand but never bothered to read it as I was relishing the beauty of nature all the way.

Sukirtha one of our family friends hosted me in Los Angeles for three days. She picked me up from the Union station in Los Angeles and took to her home. She had prepared a delicious dinner which included murungakai sambhar,rasam, kathirikai curry along with crispy dosas which made me to take a long walk after dinner.

Will post about places I visited in LA later.

~~Day in Disneyland~~

I took a mini vacation from the vacation  and went to Los Angeles for three days. Yesterday I got reunited with the 4S family in Disneyland.

One thing I hate is standing in the queue and this is the place where you spend most of the time waiting for your turn.Though the queue moves at a constant pace its more like a snake with lots of twist and turns.Finally we will end up having one ride which is as close to commiting suicide. I have been to the small amusement park in Coney island though its very small and old compared to the one here the wait time there is negligible though all the rides gives a similar physical experience.Only difference is the hifi setups which gives a different visual experience in disney.

Picture below from one of the rides I liked

To break up the the day on how we spent the time
80%-Standing in the queue
10%- eating
5%-shopping
5%-in the rides.

~~iTouch Drama~~

Hey everyone. . .your favorite blogger is back: Swetha!!! ;)

Today I'm going to tell you the story of the crazy drama that led up to me getting an iPod Touch.

I don't usually ask for many expensive things. I think this was the first time I've ever asked for something that cost over $50. It started around last April or May. Almost all my friends (except one or two) had an iPod Touch (also known as an iTouch). Actually, pretty much 90% of the population at my school had one. At first, I didn't really mind. I thought, Oh it's just another one of those high-tech device thingys. But after listening to my friends talk about this new device, I thought it sounded pretty cool. By the time the school year ended, I really wanted one. 

You might be thinking that the only reason I wanted an iTouch was because everyone else had one. But that's NOT true. I had my own reasons:

1.) To listen to music! Since my mp3 player is still in the seat pocket in the Peru plane, I needed a device that played music.

2.) Email. The iTouch can access internet as long as there is Wi-fi, so it would be a quick way for me to check my email.

3.) Cool apps. My friends always talked about all sorts of cool and free apps and games that could be downloaded.

After I decided I wanted an iTouch, it was time to convince Mommy and Daddy. And by convince, I mean ARGUE. I think I spent most of the last 3 months arguing than doing anything else; arguing about why I needed an iTouch. But I think it was worth it, because in the end, I got what I wanted. Mommy thinks that I wasted my time arguing, because she was going to get it for me anyway, but I don't think any time was wasted. I think all my arguing added excitement and it kept building up right to the climax on Christmas morning when I got my present. But I wouldn't have argued that much if Mommy hadn't been so vague. If she'd told me straight out she was going to get it for me, I wouldn't have pestered her as much. But since I wasn't sure if I was getting it, I had to make sure she would get it for me, so I had to pester her. :))

Now that I have an iTouch, I'm happy. It's really cool and I'm not left out of the technology circle anymore.

Thank you Mommy and Daddy!!!

~~Ant Attack~~

This is Shreya and it's now my turn to take over this blog.

Couple days ago, I opened my lunch box and AAAAHHHHHHHH!!! globs of ants came pouring out, so I got inspired to write a poem about our little ant friends that are beginning to take over our house.

Black, tiny, and such pests,
They always get their way,
It’s an insect we can’t get rid of,
But they’ll hopefully disappear one day.

Roaming in lunch boxes, crawling in sinks,
Going through food,
Hiding in clothes, and in the shower,
Those creatures know how to be rude.

Even though they kind of live with us,
We don’t like them greatly,
But they’ve learned how to eat our food,
Even 10 chilies!

The horrible creature I’m talking about,
 Surely isn’t an eggplant,
But those creepy crawly tiny things,
Is something we like to call an ant.

                                                       ~Shreya

~~Moral of the Day~~

As usual, this is Swetha. Chithappa left his laptop at home, and his blog account is signed in, so I'm controlling his blog for the next 3 days :))

I have a very important announcement to make today: SRIRAM CHITHAPPA IS BAD AT MATH!!!
Let me tell you the story. . . . .

Yesterday after school I was having a hard time with my math homework. Chithappa said he would help me, and he ended up doing almost all the math problems. Problem #10 asked to prove if a certain figure was a parallelogram. I wrote the answer as "no", because there wasn't enough information to prove it. But Chithappa told me it WAS a parallelogram! I totally and completely trusted his knowledge of math, so I changed the answer to "yes". He even gave me a long proof which proved that it was a parallelogram, and I spent at least 15 minutes writing it down.

Today I got to school and handed in my test. When I got it back, there was a big red circle on problem #10! The correct answer was "no"!!! It WASN'T a parallelogram! My original answer was correct! And now all because of Chithappa, I got one problem wrong!!! Everyone else in the class had gotten it right! And now instead of a 100, my grade was a 90...ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!

Right now, I have strong feelings of anger toward Chithappa. I can't wait until he gets home so I can yell at him in person :))

But there's a moral to every story so here is the moral of this story:

NEVER ask Sriram Chithappa to help you with math homework. NEVER EVER EVER!!!

~~Riya's first Poem~~

I feel honoured to publish the first poem written by Riya!

Red, Orange, Yellow,  Green, Blue

Dont Forget The Purple Too

Rainbow Colors For You And Me

Colors Make Us Happy Too!

~~The Transitive Property of Studying~~

This is Swetha again. Sriram chithappa did my math homework for me, so in return, I am blogging for him :)

A couple weeks ago at school, we were learning about the Transitive Property in math. My teacher, Mrs. O, is the WORST math teacher ever. She just reads out loud from the textbook, and when she talks, she just stares at the ceiling. We all got very bored of listening to her drone on and on and on, so a couple students in my class created the Transitive Property of Studying.



The Transitive Property of Studying


The more we study, the more we learn.
The more we learn, the more we know.
The more we know, the more we forget.
The more we forget, the less we know.


Therefore: the more we study, the less we know!
SO WHY STUDY?! :)


~written by the students of Mrs. O's boringgggggg
                                 Period 8 Geometry class 


Uh-oh...I hope Mrs. O doesn't find this blog...

~~Stuffed Animals at Night~~

I am too lazy to blog so Swetha is taking over.

Hi everyone! This is Swetha. Here is a poem that I wrote. Enjoy!



Stuffed Animals at Night


You wake up in the morning and get out of bed.
Whoa! Your teddy bear has a bump on his head!
I’m dreaming, you think, when you see a scar on his jawbone.
But in reality, stuffed animals have a life of their own.

When you get under the covers, and turn off the light
Stuffed animals gather around and start to excite.
“Come on!” they call, hurrying to the bedroom door,
And they start the long walk across the hallway floor.

They tiptoe down the long flight of stairs,
Heading to the playroom, waiting for what is there.
When they reach the room, the stuffed animals rejoice.
In front of their eyes, are your hundreds of toys!

They gather around with all their toy friends,
To have some fun that never ends!
From eleven o’clock to half-past seven,
Your stuffed animals buddies are in heaven!

Some of them grabbed a Frisbee and tossed it around,
It hit your teddy bear, knocking him to the ground.
That’s why his chin might need a band-aid,
(Don’t worry; his scar soon will fade).

After hours of playtime, it’s time to say bye,
The stuffed animals hug the toys; some start to cry.
As they slowly ascend the staircase that leads to the room,
They think, Will we see our toy friends again soon?

Of course they will! They always unite!
‘Cause this is what stuffed animals do every night.

by: Swetha Raman

~~Link I liked~~

Got it from my friend's facebook found it nice

~~New year's Eve~~

Details on Sheila's blog :)

~~Happy New Year~~

Better late than never !

I wish you all a wonderful 2011!!!