It's been raining the whole of the weekend. Was tied to the home, being lazy and watching television for a good portion of this long weekend. Something that I did after a long time.

Its a very bad movie season at Hollywood and Kollywood. Recently I moved to the sitcoms. Completed the third season of Desperate Housewives. Currently watching the first season of NBC's hit show, Heroes. Also started to watch Friends from it's first season. I completed a round last year. This is a second trip to the Friend's galaxy.

By the way, unlike many of the fans, Ross Geller and Phoebe Buffay are my faves.

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Director Vasanth has a cool interview on kumudam.com alongwith Nitin Sathya, the villain of his latest movie, Satham Podathey. Vasanth is one of favorite directors of Kollywood. However, I have to say that he wasn't so careful on choosing his film subjects. Probably Nerukku Nerr was a start to that carelessness. His next film Rhythm had a great subject but also had a pretty uninspiring script. Hey Nee Romba Azhaga Irukka was a classy film with a great script. I don't think anyone even cared to watch the film.

Vasanth's uniqueness is to allow his characters speak their natural language and be themselves. Having introduced some of the movers and shakers of kollywood from Simran to Jyothika to Surya, Vasanth still has very low profile. And that's probably why he is a misfit to Kollywood.

Am still waiting to watch Satham Podathey hoping its probably one of the better films of what can be called as a continuing diastorous year for kollywood.

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Being on the subject of this year's best films of kollywood, my list is currently restricted to two films - Chennai 600 028 and 'Muthazhagu' fame Paruthi Veeran.

Kamal's Dasavatharam has all qualities to join the list. Probably Tamil M.A too. I watched the trailer of this Jeeva starrer Tamil M.A and I am already wanting to watch the film.

This year's biggest let down was undoubtedly, you know what :)

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Watched Sivaji over the weekend for the second time. No word on how the movie fared the second time around.

But here is something that Shankar should do before he starts to make the next hype at the bollywood level, watch just two movies.

a) Mel Gibson's Apocalypto
b) The Lives Of Others

These are certainly not the only best movies now. But this is what the contemporary cinema has to offer. And creators should atleast watch these movies before they start yapping about their so called tight-scripts.

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Was surrounded by mountains at the Olympic National Park. Inspiring !!

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Its been sometime since I stopped drinking Mochas with an overdose of sugar. A good friend introduced me to the drip coffee at Starbucks and since then its been, a drip a day.

Drip Coffee beans are coarser than the espresso ones. They are made in the same way as the South Indian coffee but the concoction is just a tad thicker. So even as the drip coffee powder is made to stay alongwith the water for a longer time, they seem to have more caffeine when compared to an espresso.

So if you planning to gulp a drip, the best combination is half & half milk(which contains 40 calories including 32 calories of fat in just 2 teaspoons) and sugarless sugar(whatever that means).

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Last time around it was a strenuous search for two whole months. And as other fellow desis adviced I ended up with a 90's Toyota Carolla.

Just today when I was thinking to car shop, I ended up in a Honda showroom. I was looking to buy the post-2002 Honda Accord in it's magentic grey color. And I found one with moon roof and stuff. So that was a used one and costed more than some of the new ones they had in stock. Confused with the dynamics of US car market, I wanted to really look-out few more places before I nailed down on something. On the way home, I decided to drop into a Toyota showroom.

Driving the Corolla for a year, I started liking the Toyota brand and their service. And they are much flexible in terms of accessories than the Honda guys. But the dark greyish honda accord was mesmerizing me on the another end. The latest 2007 model of Camry was in the showroom. Though I didn't have a big liking for Camrys, the latest model had some of the best curves and an affordable price tag to it.

So I found a magnetic grey Camry. Unfortunately(!!) it was loaded with some amazing accesories which I wouldn't like to pay for. It had moon-roof, surrond sound bluetooth, 8 speakers which spilled 440 watts and mp3/wma compatible 6 CD changer. I made no sense to me to have mp3 and 6 CD changer together. Being the latest version, released just over a month back, they didn't have enough of the metallic grey that I liked. They convinced me with a loan option. What else ? I bought it and drove home listening to Kaathal Ithuthaan Athuthaan Endru Ketkumaa.

Was it a good decision or not ? Let me see what I feel like tomorrow morning.

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Last night, atleast half of the America public, lifted their heads to stare the twilight sky as 4th of July fireworks drew interesting geometric shapes. It was only then I had myself looking at the American sky for such a long time. The Independence day celebrations at the eastside of Seattle, is one of the popular ones. Its the biggest community gathering in Seattle. Other than fireworks, there was a fair and a live music show going on.

While the fireworks was on, The Bellevue Philharmonic played the theme of Mission Impossible. And yeah, it was so cool. Enjoyed the fireworks, had some elephant ears topped with cinnamon sugar and came back home.

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Today is the longest day at Seattle. Sunrise was at 5:11 a.m and the tireless sun finally decided to set about 9:10 p.m. It's summer starting today and as the sun peaks out, Seattlites freak out.

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One couldn't guess what he/she can find in a library. On a sunny day like yesterday, I found a rack of tamil books in the Seattle Pubic Library. I had to literally discover them located in one corner of the library. So I picked a bunch of those books. More Info overload.

The bunch included Neela Padmanaban's Therodum Veethi, Suprabharathi Manian's Appa and Matrum Silar and Ka. Na. Su's Thomas Vandhaar. The most interesting find were two books by Ashokamitran. One was En Payanam, sort of an autobiography on his writing career. Donno if they included these articles on Ashokamitran Katturaigal book. The other one was Iruvar, a double novel published as a single book. I haven't heard about Ashokamitran's Iruvar before yesterday. Seems like its a long forgotten book.

Kush !!

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Had been to the Seattle Tulip Show[Skagit Valley Festival] on a rainy day, two weeks ago. The muted climate proved worthwhile for photographs, even with a pathetic sony camera. Here are some of them.

Click images to enlarge.

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It takes a year atmost for an unassuming desi to become wary of calories. While some 10-20% of them are already calorie conscious right from India, most of what-the-heck-is-a-calorie desis take atleast 12 months before they are soaking wet in the world of calories, fats, 2 % saturated fat, carbs and so-so. Amidst reading Pudumaipithan and Ashokamithran books, I recently found myself trapped with a book, The Bread for Life Diet : The High-on-Carbs Weight-Loss Plan. Mind you, I'm was the kind of desi who was once throwing a big damn towards all these calories and carbs.

I have to say I'm hugely impressed with this bread for life diet plan. Written by Israeli nutritionist Olga Raz's this is a innovative diet plan that tries to control your brain from hogging food, rather than controlling the physical YOU. By taking regular courses of light bread which has carbs, it aims to raise Serotonin levels in hypothalamus region of the brain are raised. Brain is often called as the hunger center of the body which initiates and processes the feeling of hunger. Serotonin is a chemical that influences the mood and hunger.

Raz says adopting to a diet fails for most diet-watchers because a crash-course diet usually advices low carb foods and hence serotonin levels decrease, incresing the hunger more and more. With regular carbs intake, through light bread and other vegetables, the Serotonin levels are raised and hence hunger is controlled even in the brain. The diet plan is actually dealt in detail but the crux of the plan is to intake as much as 16 slices of light bread for men and 12 slices for women. While even reading this book makes you think this is a radical idea for diet, the diet plan claims to have reduced the weight of thousands of people already. Following this diet plan, the average weight loss among healthy people is said to 10 to 20 pounds, which ofcourse may vary from individuals.

What ? Am I trying it ? Donno but the book was well written and was certainly high-carbs food for my calorie conscious desi-mind.

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Go Seahawks !!

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Aranmanai Siruvayalil is a play sponsored by Seattle Tamil Sangam on the account of Pongal celebrations at Seattle. Though Pongal completed a week back, on Sunday Jan 29th, this play will be staged in Sammamish High School, where the Gujus play Dandia during Dussehra.

Incidentally there are two bloggers out here, who are playing a role in this play. A long time blogger Swami and his wife Lakshmi are the bloggers who are playing play roles in Aranmanai Siruvayalil. Both of them have prior experience in stage plays, given their experience in staging S. Ve. Shekar's Thattupillai, and acting alongwith him. If you are around Seattle, do take a spin.

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After graciously failing in attempts to get Sun & Vijay TV, the only option was to get connected to Chennai was through Jaya TV. So I subscribed to Jaya TV through Num TV. Sometime back, Uma and few others recommended Jaya TV but I wanted to watch the tamil channel on a television. So I didn't pursue that seriously. Left with no options, I succumbed to watching TV on the PC.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a bad deal. The streaming video is at 300 kbps with good clarity, good enough for comfortable viewing. It doesn't match the TV-on-TV quality yet it ain't bad. The good news for me is that kollywood has moved nearer to me through Jaya TV. And I could see Kushboo and the jacket design on Jack..Jack..Jack...Jackpot. So much for missing Tamil Channels. Anything written here in relation to satellite channel, hereafter refers to Jaya TV, unless otherwise specified. So if you start smelling too much of kollywood here, you know why.

This morning, I got see Simbhu's pongal special program, with clippings from his latest flick, Saravana where he was trying to acting like Rajini and even like Vijay. He claims to have done comedy for the first time. Deja Vu or is it me. He said the same stuff during his movie Trisha named Alai. Alai never got to see even 25 days in theatres and this 'i'm doing comedy for the first time' seems to be coming around. This whole thing seems to be a big comedy itself. For the kind of opening he go and the oppurtunity he gets, Simbhu should just act for the character given instead of developing his 'own' style. Given KS Ravikumar and Jothika in the movie, I'm hoping Saravana would be a bearable watch. Or is it not ?

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This is the 23rd consecutive day of rain in Seattle. The record is 33 days, set in 1953, reads the headline in Seattle PI. Another 10 more days of rain and Seattle will break its own record which is set to 33 consecutive days of rain in 1953. CNN has more on this marathon rain.

And now you know why there is not much spice in the blog. Before I could tackle the windy downtown rains and reach home, a Netflix DVD awaits me. So there goes the blogging spirit. Jokes apart, coming from chennai(I mean the Chennai before the monsoon of 2005), this Seattle rain was like heaven, when I first reached here. I still enjoy the drizzlings especially the early evening drizzles are a cheer to the bored souls. Last saturday, while walking to Subway, my umbrella just broke due to heavy winds. Its then I realized that the rains have started to be a daily affair.

Being locked in the house, due to this rain, I planned to get the 'amusing' SUN TV via Dish network. Guess what. No Signal. Two trees standing right in front of my apt are blocking Sapthaswarangal and Selvi entering my home. DirectTV broadcasts Vijay TV but I'm not sure if the trees would allow its signal. So I went ahead and booked the suite of HBO channels today combined with a digital box. With the 8 HBO channels and numerous On-Demand movies through Comcast, I hope to wade through the rainy days. I hope.

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On a new year day like yesterday, found some time escape from the usual and drive to Snoqualmie Pass, a skiing facility. Snoqualmie Pass is located some 52 miles east of Seattle and is also called as Snoqualmie Summit. The northeast of Seattle, is filled with mountain ranges and shopping malls(they are there everywhere). These mountain ranges get snow throughout the winter and hence serve as a perfect skiing escapade(read as vazhukki vizhara area). Because I wasn't prepared to push myself from the top of the mountain and keep falling down like the Roja's Arvind Swamy, I was playing with the snow, like a Mani Ratnam heroine. Though I had been to a skiing resort once in Chicago but it was only yesterday, I got myself amidst mountains, covered with snow. Am planning to plan for another week of this slipping down(read skiing) exercise.

As you hear the priest say, after giving you three sips of the theartham, " Please keep moving !!", you know you are in a desi temple. Common language. The temple at Bothell was overfilled with people and was full of chaos. Amidst all the chaos, I found some time and place(!!) to meet Raj Kumar, a fellow blogger from the other side of Seattle. We had planned to meet since March but were able to meet just yesterday. What else. Had the lemon rice served as prasadham and drove back in the drizzling rain.

Watched The Polar Express. Being a big fan of Robert Zemeckis and especially being aware of his enthusiasm in animation, I was expecting a gala fare. Zemeckis widely known for his Forrest Gump, was actually the guy who revolutionized the animation industry in Hollywood by having animated characters act with the cast in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

If Sin City was re-telling of the teenage comics, The Polar Express is like opening a children's book. I was reminded of some russian comics, I read during my childhood. The animation isn't the same as other hollywood movies. The characters are extremely real. Tom Hanks looks exactly like him. From the wrinkles in his face to his expressions, its just Tom Hanks. Seems to me that all the characters were performed by a cast including Tom Hanks and then they converted the film into animation.

In a time where the spirit of Santa Claus getting diminished, year after year, the movie expresses a noble motive by trying to keep the spirit going. Contrary to the name, the movie doesn't travel in express speed except for the beginning sequence. That should probably be a reason for the movie failure. Also in a world of Incredibles and Shrek, where animation movies feed the adult, Polar Express is for kids. To keep them as kids and induce the belief of Santa. Certainly a treasure in your house, for the kid in the house.

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I love to hear the talk radio while driving to work but then I probably end up with those news stattions constantly screaming the traffic updates.

NPR is certainly fresh air for me. I am probably their newest subscriber to their programs. Accidentaly, I got to listen Terry Gross' Fresh Air on the net. Since then its keeping my MP3 player busy. Am patting myself on a self-found gem.

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Been stuck at office like a car after heavy snow. Loads of work before the million dollar baby goes live in two weeks from now. Curious last moments is what makes a software engineer's life, a bliss. And I'm enjoying every moment of it trying to keep myself cool without getting panicked.

Talking about getting panicky, Seattlites just got freaky over the last few days owing to the weathermen going over-board about the expected snow. When snow came down, people left the office thinking that the snow would take over the city. What happened was an anti-climax. Snow came down, life went on as normal. Nothing much was distruppted except me being late for the evening coffee by just a few minutes.

By the time me and friends reached the COMPUSA store on the thanksgiving night, it was 11:30 pm. Around 500 Indians(yes, 98% indians and 2 % asians not indians were the only people around) were already in the line with monkey caps and their wives, who showed no interest in accompanying their husbands to an electronics store. Stroke of midnight, people started walking inside the shop and as usual a bunch of desi dudes ran inside the shop without coming through the line. By the time I was inside the store, it seemed like a kalinga war was just fought. The hard disk section was ransacked and I just got hold of some box which I didn't know what it contained. Following the old quote - follow the stream, as everyone was picking up couple of boxes, me too picked up two of them. Later when I saw that they were 250 GB hard disks costing $180, i left them back.

Did you just think, Technology has improved so muchaaa. Wait. Around 200 of the desi crowd was just climbing one upon other like the first day first show of a Rajini movie to get a 512 MB USB pen drive for $9.99. Phew !! I came back home without buying anything.

The Thanks 'buying' stuff finally arrived. Like I planned, I bought the 160 GB external accomdata hardisk but for $70, instead of $50. I bought them online at Fry's Outpost. Also went to CompUSA next day of Thanks giving to find hundreds of wireless routers lying around, which were missing on the previous night. I am a mobile blogger now. Yep, the home network is all set, thanks to CompUSA's wireless router. So I can browse and even blog while eating idli molagaapodi on the dining table.

As it gets colder in Seattle, it gets exciting too. The snow this morning while driving to work, lifted my spirits. The tall evergreen trees with snow cap on them makes the whole place look so beautiful. Accompanied with Rahman's Tanha Tanha on the CD player, it was a sight that I would remember for a long time to come. Meanwhile the city is getting it's holiday dressing. Street trees are decorated with serial lights, Santa socks and caps being sold even in medical stores(!!), the work place is getting decorated with holiday trees and the shops are open even longer than the original working hours to meet the holiday sales. The year end seems to be the most exciting part of the year, be it in India or in US. Oh yeah !! I'm missing the marghazhi kutcheri.

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I am not an electronics nut. Still the plan for tonight is this. Myself and a bunch of self-proclaimed geeks are haunting the COMPUSA, opening at 11:59 pm. Have decided to buy a couple of 'essential' electronics including an 160 GB external hardrive at $49.99. Thats a kill for that money.

Also, planning to wait in the Seattle cold from 4:30 am for the opening of Best Buy at 5:00 am tomorrow morning. Haven't yet decided what to buy because there is always something to buy. XBOX 360 ? Not sure but I'm raking my brains and thinking if $399 is worth it. If it was PS3, I would have readily bought it. But then, the ads of XBOX 360 is just scintillating. Looks like it will be a quite an experience.

There is also a wireless broadband router at sale. Sony 5 megapizel with 10x zoom on sale. DV-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs, Camcorders, MP3 Players are all on sale for this Black Friday 2005. For a male, even if you window shop, electronics is dope. And BTW, who said I am not an electronics nut ?

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Found this lying amidst dollar bills in a donation box at the Seattle Public Library. True ?

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Bellevue and Redmond (yeah !! the same Microsoft Redmond) are like twin towns nearly overlapping each other set to the east of Seattle. Supposed to be one of the most pricey communities in & around Seattle, which I was oblivious to until I found myself paying rent through my nose. My community, near an array of Microsoft offices is one the picturesque place.

Was driving in the early morning to Redmond. It was drizzling just like any other day in Seattle. The fall colors seems to come out fast and you could spot the whole spectrum from light yellow to bright red leaves. Combined with the wetness due to rain and the bright fall colors, it seemed like a picture postcard shot. Coming from India, anyone would be awestruck by the colors and ofcourse the rain. Though I've travelled in a ferry to see the Washington Island fall colors, in Illinois, this morning it was a revelation. Just taking an 'U' turn from the home, I could see the dazzling fall colors. Seattle is partly a heaven. Once I visit California I would agree another part of 'delicious' heaven is out there. I suddenly remember, Illayaraja singing, Athu Nammoru Pola Varumaa. What a paradox ?

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Recieved a FEDEXed parcel. Had asked my folks to send across one of my favorite T-Shirt which I had forgot to carry. Along with a pack of jav-arisi vadaams, Ashokamithran's Katuraigal Part 1 and 2, I also got this purple tee-shirt. It had a fresh smell. A familiar Indian washing powder smell. Reminded me of my home at Chennai and I'm still wondering what a little smell can do to your mood swings.

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Seattle was busy this weekend. The main newsmaker was that Seattle Tunnel which was closed yesterday. Seattle's tunnel unlike the one in other cities doesn't feature tubes. Once the buses from the suburb entered the downtown, most of them go via the tunnel. Starting yesterday, they sealed it for the next two years when it will be equipped to run tubes as well as buses. And there were celebrations through out last week, arranged by the King County travel department. Some pictures that were shot using my mobile camera are on the Seattle photoblog.

The downtown traffic would just get heavier from the coming week with all the underground traffic moving above and I am expecting that it wouldn't cause any delays. Throughout the last weekend, people were flicking pictures all along the tunnel that they are going to miss for the next two years. It was certainly a sight to watch and reminded me of people who took their last journey on the Old Chennai electric train a year back. Wherever you go, the cities & its people may be different but the emotion is all the same. An universal truth that is.

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I didn't know what the fish symbolised, until Ram explained me over the weekend. He glanced my car and asked if I was an atheist. Spontaneously I said NO [Note the point, your honor]. My car had an empty fish emblem like the picture above, stuck to its trunk. Until he told me about the Darwin fish, I had no clue except reading Darwin's theory of evolution during high school. For starters [like me], Darwin Fish is a symbol of atheism and belief on the science of evolution that Darwin advocated. So having the Darwin Fish on the rear of your car means tom-toming the world that the driver is a believer of no-god philosophy.

It's tough to write this post as it calls for self inquiry. Am I a believer of god or not? Answering in Nayagan Kamal's tone, I should be saying, Theriliyepaa. Have read enough science like most of us - traveled around the mountain of Thiruvannamalai several times - agreed to the Bagath Singh argument on why he is an atheist - tasted Margazhi's suda suda vaen pongal in perumal koil with the prabandams reverberating in the temple - read quite a bit of periyaar's philosophies - argued about it with enough confused friends - carried the smallest idol of chandikeshwarar on my shoulders during urchavams - understood the essence of Bhagavath Gita - read enough Indian mythologies in Amar Chitra Katha - frantically followed Sujatha's Kadavul Irukiraara series in Vin Nayagan and many more such ironies. The asynchronous mix of everything confuse me more than anything. Is god there or is it just a way to tame the animal inside ? I have searched/am searching many a place for a definitive answer. Both internal and external. The people whom I turned for answers never could answer me to my agreement. Neither could they make me fully believe/disbelieve god.

Am being a middle class here too. One among that middle class group which is neither able to believe or dis-believe god. A group that has read science but still changes the sacred thread every Aavini Aavittam. That’s where the pressure lies. Sometimes the intellectual geek in you suggests, enough dude!! life came from what Stephen Hawking defines as big bang and that theory is directly against the laws of Hinduism. At times, the poonal pops up and reminds, Ambi !! the creation and destruction of universe according to Hinduism is one day of Brahma’s life and we are just living when Brahman let out a breath of fresh air from his nose.

Whatsoever, I may not go ahead and tear out the Darwin fish from my car. Free speech.

I wrote this last night but didn't hit the publish button. After shutting down my computer, I went to apply a blotch of vibuthi on my forehead and prayed, Nalam Tharum Sollai Kandukondain Narayana Enum Naamam, twelve times before I went to bed. Thinking whether god exists or not, I went into deep sleep.

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For a change, cardboard Krishna jumped into my carpeted house from the balcony, this time. And I got to eat lotsa seedais. However, missed Sun TV playing Kettathum Kodupavaney[Deiva Magan] and Ullathil Nalla Ullam[Karnan], numerous times on a Krishna Jayanthi.

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Hindu Temple and Cultural Center at Bothell.

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Hemanth is currently visiting Seattle and having a nice time with movies / bad time without his Mac. We met over lunch yesterday and had fun time discussing Madras stuff and ofcourse a little bit of cinema. Incidentally, we found ourselves, that we both worked/work/will work for the same company back at chennai and here too.

After a naan filled lunch, we decided to walk back and started talking about cinemas and the famous Grand theatre at Anna Nagar. Hemanth is hanging out in Seattle for sometime and hopefully we will get to meet often to catch-up. I am not going to allow him to escape without talking about our respective blogs.

Read Hemanth's interesting account on we stumbled against each other.

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Travelling through the bus gets interesting day by day. The gentleman beside me was sitting with small cardboard in his hand. It read,"Bush lied about Iraq. Impeach him". He seemed like a normal corporate man who is returning from office to his home. He was holding the cardboard in his hand while waiting for bus and then kept it inside the bag while travelling in the bus.

Now, without getting into any US political details, of which I'm proud to be oblivious of, if we could have a totally unassuming common man in India showing such a harmless protest and get back home safe, I would agree we have freedom of speech/expression. Not that I'm blaming the homeland, rather dreaming that even if one were to hold a placard like that he shouldn't fear the autorickshaws lined-up in front of his house, the next morning.

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He said, "Now, go over to the curb and leave your car in an unmanned position". A brain wave stuck, Oh !! this is the uphill stuff. I parked the car with the tyres in the uphill position. Pulled my hand brakes and said, "I'm done". He said," Downhill now". I did the downhill stuff.

After I came back to the licensing office he said, " You are a great driver. Too good for someone on a driving test. Just that you misplaced uphill as downhill and downhill as uphill. Take the test again. Better luck next time".

Kavuthutaangappa Kavuthutaanga !!

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Seattle Air Show which happened today as a part of Seafair 2005, was scintillating. The speed, the turns and ofcourse the noise were at all time high and it was like watching a Wolfgang Petersen movie being shot before the eyes. Seattle Airshow is also known as Mother of Air shows especially because the Boeing being headquatered at Seattle and nearly half a million get to see it. Performed over the Lake Washington, it has the beautiful snowclad Mt Rainier as the backdrop.

While the I-90 traffic was just moving quite contrary to the supersonic speed of the airshow, I went upto Mercer Island on the banks of Lake Washington. And to get a view myself and Ram walked into the lake and were standing knee deep in water to see the airshow. As the U.S. Navy Blue Angels started to perform stuff that I had only watched in movies, it gave me goosebumps. The whole of the Seattle's hanging bridge was closed to avoid distractions to the car drivers on the bridge. I was live moblogging from the airshow !! Check out some photos on the Seattle Moblog.

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With my jeans getting wet due to the water, we had to get some sun on the jeans. While standing in the shore, we saw a gentleman who was looking like our 'Kakkha Kakkha' Gautam Menon. With his trimmed down physique and grown up hair he was looking like Gautam Menon's brother. I wasn't convinced that it was Gautam so Ram went ahead and asked if he was Gautam. To my surprise, he nodded his head in acceptance. He said that he was visiting his sister and hence came over to the show.

Though I had personally met him during the Symbiosis seminar at Chennai, with my tough questions, his new hair style and trimmed down 'Vettayadu Villayadu' style was mis-leading. I wanted to take a picture of him and still didn't want to invade his privacy. So I clicked just him without his sister and her son. We greeted and he moved on. All along my guessing part before clarifying with him, I was standing close to him and was saying to Ram, "Hey, avaru konjam gunda irupaaru illa, kojam sotta vera". You should have seen my face turn pale when he nodded for our question on his identity. There were few more Indians around and I'm not sure if Kamal was also there in some VV make-up !!

With Gautam's Vettayadu Villayadu kicking off from New York on Aug 15th, he must have been having taking a long rest in Seattle before he jumps into the shoot. Let's see if I can spot him in some Indian store eating samosa. I would love to tell him he was a nice guy to remain cool even after overhearing me describing him.

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Not the one above. But something similar(!!) to this 2005 Corolla. I finally bought a late 90's Toyota Corolla with enough miles on it. As my car search rolled from weeks into months, it was like Than muyarchiyil satrum manam thalaraatha vikramaadhityan stuff. Alas, I fell a prey to the 'desi' HondaToyotaHondaToyota syndrome, only for good. The nice thing about this used car is that it has Kenwood CDs/speakers and I'm already looping Anbe Aaaruyirey. Nice to drive, am not cribbing here. Thanks to Sridhar for helping me with the car google.

So when you drive by the streets of Redmond, if you hear someone blasting Fanah in a maroon corolla and shouting alongwith it, give me a kick, thats me.

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My mobile camera just bumped out of my pocket and started clicking pictures of everyday Seattle. To encourage it's enthusiasm, I decided to create a photoblog on Flickr. Go Seattle !! will be shot with my mobile camera and will have pictures from this lovely city of Seattle.

From buses to downtown avenues to grocery stores to interesting marketing captions, there are some nice moments which I've missed to capture. Not anymore. I'm taking snaps and sending them to flickr instantly through my mobile phone. So if you find a new picture that was pretty much taken few hours back.

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This morning, with Yej Jo Des Hai Tera looping in my ears, I took a long stroll until Microsoft. I came back home.

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Aithayum Mamanum Soagam Thaana
Aathula Meenum Soagam Thaana
Aithayum Mamanum Soagam Thaana
Aathula Meenum Soagam Thaana
Annamey Onnayum Ennayum Thooki Valaththa
Thinnayum Sugam Thaana...

The water droplets from the top of the glass window, in the bus, were sliding down. On the way down, as they were accumulating other droplets and enlarging themselves in size, it was this Rahman classic that was vocalizing in my ears. Was as energizing as the rainy day.

My player was on the shuffle mode. Guess what was the next song....Themmaangu Paadikondey Silu Siluvendru Sinduthamma Thooral, Muthu Thooral. IntelliShuffle !!

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Was camping over the long weekend in Dash Point with Ram and few other friends. No electricity, No cable/DVD, No internet. Just the nature. Though the cold weather made me shudder in the wee hours of the morning, it was a good break from the routine.

I came back this afternoon to see many mails and many more spam comments. I was oblivious to the Mahabharata/Mani Ratnam/LOTR fact/prank until I read the mails from some friends. Someone tell me it was a prank and I would love it. Not that I hate the idea of Mani filming Mahabharata. Just that I am not sure how it will turn up or probably I'm too sleepy to make myself believe the fact.

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It wasn't exactly filled with hemangioma simplex[strawberry]. Though it had shops selling special strawberry products like Strawberry Shortcake and Strawberry lolipops, it was a cultural gathering and a grand display of vintage cars.

From the previous episode, you know that I ain't a car freak but even for me it was a fascinating line-up of Mustangs, Chevys and Volkswagens of yester years. Catch pictures of Bellevue Strawberry Festival / Vintage Cars line-up on the Seattle photoblog.

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I ain't sure if this is the coolest looking mobile in town, but its the most profitable to own. Amazon allows me to buy this Samsung E315 for $100, with a T-Mobile connection and gives back $200. So I get the phone for no cost and also get an extra $100. Cool. I would probably buy few books and DVDs for that extra money that would come to me through mail after 3-4 months. BTW, I have no idea what I would do the with T-Mobile's 1000 minutes/month plan with unlimited minutes on weeknights/weekends.

This Samsung E315 has a VGA camera and video recorder with 15 second clips. Also allows me to take profile shots of myself. I was looking out for Nokia 6620 and just because T-Mobile doesn't offer that in my zipcode, I had to settle with this. On the merry-go-round of my mobile shopping, I bumped upon a common truth, myself. In Asia/India, we have more advanced phones than what's offered here in US of A.

Now, you guys don't bounce those comments on the latest cell phones and make me feel more envious !!

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I've been lazy, not offlate, for quite sometime. From Shalini's new kid to Anand's Silicon India Interview to Srikanth's Curry Rock[i know you are in India, Sriks], there are a bunch of friends with special occasions and 10 digit numbers that I need to dial-in to get in touch with. That's my only job this week other than the 8 movies that have arrived from the library today.

Well, yeah!!...there is car search, bellevue strawberry festival, shopping uppu/pulli/perungayam at mayuri, hair cut, guests for lunch on saturday and ofcourse the favorite blogging. All this in less than 48 hrs from now. Gotta go....

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I'm car shopping busily and it sucks big time. I have no idea why desis push other desis, infact torture them until they accept, to only buy Honda or Toyota.

For the money that I'm investing, to get a 'dubba' 95' Honda with manual windows and coffee stained back seats, I can get a slick 2001 Dodge Neon or a ultra equipped 2000 Mercury Mystique clad in leather seats and 4 disc changer attcahed to 6 Bose speakers. I know that these cars might lose their values soon but why should I end up rotating the windows when I have a choice to click a button to make them go up/down.

Oh !! yeah, I love Honda Civic and that's like the ideal middleclass vehicle. It's like buying a Kinetic Honda or Hero Honda Splendour back in India. As days go by, I'm petrified to even look at other cars also. It's like wearing a blind-fold from the minute and finding my way through fellow dudes.

Seattle's used car market is huge and costly too. Unlike the lazy/pleasant lifestlye, the car market is busy. The cars come and go in no time. So the minute you narrow down on the car and try visiting the car on the weekend, there are couple of others who want to test ride the car there and you end getting fed up by competition and come back after eating masala dosa in Redmond's Namaste.

Back to the honda syndrome, the minute I start describing the nice Mustang, I got to see/ride, my friends would go busy saying,"Thuddu waste da. Onnu Honda/Toyota vaangu, illaena kamunu engakuda bus'la vaa". To run from them, can someone help me with escape velocity ?

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To cut the small story short, they said Snoqualmie Falls was taller than Niagara. Since I didn't have a measuring tape of that size, I couldn't confirm. But it was sure fun and tons of tiredness. The walk from the top of the falls to the bottom was a through a trail and finally I had jump a fence to touch the ultra-cold water. Clicked tons of pictures. Have uploaded a few on Seattle Photoblog.

If you are visiting Seattle, its a must go. Oh !! forgot to tell you, Burger King's Onion Rings rock. Vengaaya Bajji.

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[Click image to enlarge]

Isn't that lovely ? Doesn't that seem like a mountain of snow just descended from heaven and was placed in the midst of greenery. That's Seattle for you. It's only on a lucky and sunny day you would see Mt. Rainier while travelling along I-90 highway. And that makes me even more curious. I turn back everyday while travelling on I-90 to see if I can spot Mt. Rainier.

On a clear day, I did spot the mountain and I fell in love, almost instantly. It reminds me of my favorite Thiruvannamalai mountain. While Thiruvannamalai's mountain and it's surroundings have a divine serenity, I am yet to discover Mt. Rainier and it's personality. Am planning to take a trek soon to grab the beauty of Mt Rainier. Before you fall in love with this mountain, FYI from National Park Service, Mount Rainier is the most hazardous volcano in the Cascades in terms of its potential for magma water interaction and sector collapse, and major eruptions or debris flows even without eruption. It poses significant dangers and economic threats to the region but despite such hazards and risk, Mount Rainier has received little study.

That was a picture which I shot while travelling along I-90. Some more pictures also on Seattle Photoblog. With pun intended, an ending statement worth pondering, Who knows what's burning inside a mountain of ice ?.

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God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

That was one of my faves from an entire gamut of such levelheaded quotes as spoken by Tyler Durden aka Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Even after this being playing-in-a-loop at the back of mind I went ahead to buy an IPOD. Not exactly an IPOD. But the other IPOD. God created Apple, ITunes and IPOD for the classy dudes. For the masses he gave Windows, Media Player and Creative Zen. Creative Zen isn't a poor man's IPOD but indeed it's an intelligent man's IPOD. Yep, I may admire the professional qualities of Steve Jobs. I may re-read The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, I may have booked ICon at the local library even before it is released or I may even aspire to build a small network of Apple Mac Mini at home but I may not buy IPOD.

Why ? I hate to pay Apple 100 bucks every year when my battery dries up. $105 just to open a lid of IPOD and tuck in a mobile phone battery may prove a costly for the masses like me, especially for ones who loves to listen every single genre of songs available. While I love the IPOD wheel and have read enough of gaga over it's UI, I felt that on the same price with an extra GB of storage, a FM radio and voice recording capabilities(which I am sure I would never use), Creative Zen Micro was a killer buy. A true replacement for those IPOD Minis . It has a battery that can be easily replaced. Infact only after I bought it I saw for myself that the batteries of Zen can be easily misplaced too. Yeah, the back lid is just not tight that even when Unni Krishnan is singing Enakke Enakka!!, in your ears, it might have fallen down on the stairs.

Creative Zen looks cool to me just because I haven't used any other mp3 player except CD players until now. It is certainly not durable. The casing looks as though it might even break with the first fifteen days that I might return it to Best Buy to take a refund. But the user interface is nice as an IPOD. As anti-hyped, the touchpad isn't all that bad. I got used to it before I was out of the store counter. Creative Inc known for their computer audio/video accessories have done a great job in designing Zen and it's generation of MP3 players. It's been born from the dis-advantages that IPOD currently has and will attract people who don't want an IPOD. I'm just a little curious about the performance of mini drives, which is used in Zen or IPOD mini. I would feel comfortable with a flash drive because these mini drives poses risk of read/write issues and might soon end up with clusters of bad sectors. The sound is crystal clear but don't believe if someone says Zen or IPOD only have such clear sounds. MP3 players are digital and will certainly have more or less the same frequency. It's actually your headset/earbuds that might make the difference.

I've been hearing the podcasts for the last few months. So for those who religiously worship Creative's Zen, let it be re-christened as Zencasting. And the thing about podcasting is that it simply doesn't impress me much. Podcasts may be a hit but may not take-off as blogs, is my humble belief. This may not be a prophetic statement but may become true as Podcasts are widely understoof. I may also probably change minds once Evhead's Odeo is released for public. But for as of now, other than BBC stuff I am still figuring out the good Zen[Pod]casts.

I might stick with this Creative Zen until Steve decides to gift me an IPOD or he releases IPODs with replaceable batteries. This Zen unit is a lucky one. It gets to play some of the best songs ever composed. Be it Illayaraja or Rahman. Currently our Maestroji is singing the cult classic, Adi Vaadi Enn Kappa Kezhangey.

Update 26 May 2004 IST - As an anti-climax, the ZEN which was fully charged this morning, lost all it's battery charge by evening even though I had only listened to it for two hours. I had switched it off for the rest of the time. Yep, I'm returning it for an IPOD test drive. I might probably settle with those 1GB flash drives with FM and voice recording(as said before, though I wouldn't be using it). Best Buy, here I come.

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[More on Flickr]

Other than polishing my monday shoes and watching three flicks in a row, I did some nice tripping around the suburbs of Seattle to glimpse the forever beauty they had in themselves. The state of Washington is called as the evergreen state and every inch of that is goddamn true. Lush green trees around you would make your ride a comfortable one. Especially if your headphones sing Illayaraja, Rahman or Dire 'Sultans of Swing' Straits, your drive would be certainly memorable.

Seattle is the the kind of place you would aspire to plan a honeymoon. Often, honeymoons settle down to be moneymoons. Thats a different story though. If you live in Seattle, you could enjoy that same atmosphere day in and out. I wished to take a trip to Alaska to enjoy it's natural beauty. But after glimpsing Seattle, I'm certainly happy that I saved bigbucks on that trip. It appears exactly like the Dehraduns and Mussories as described by Ruskin Bond in his lovable stories.

Lake Washington seperates Seattle from the town of Kirkland. And that provides a great view of the Seattle landscape from Kirkland. Kirkland has the smallest of roads and cross flags planted on crossings. Yet it consists of the costliest of condos and a hugely priced real estate. Kirkland and Mercer Island are the small heavens of Seattle.

The Argosy Cruise which takes off either from Seattle downtown or Kirkland, takes you through the long strech of Lake Washington for an hour and half. There is a live running commentary about what we see on the shores, throughout the trip. Lake Washington's shores are filled up with the homes of rich and famous. You encounter the ultra famous home of Bill Gates, the neo designed house of the Author of Excel/Word and others. So the interesting commentary sounds like a stock quote with number droppings quite often. You also travel beneath the hanging bridge of Seattle which is a freeway called IWA-520. Other than the sour cream and onion chips packets, I heard(?!) they serve good cocktails.

While the cruise was exciting and refreshing just like greenery you see around, it is also a must-go for the visitors. Some pictures of the Kirkland Cruise on the Flickr.

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[Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix] [Pic: detnews.com]

As Starbucks is for coffee, Netflix is for movies, says Reed Hasting, Netflix CEO. I prefer to change Reed Hastings' words. Like Google is for search, Starbucks is for coffee and Netflix is for movies. For all the three brands have been under-estimated when they came about. And slowly people started submitting to them. Now they rule their areas of operation, however modularized they are.

Having a Blockbuster right outside my apartment complex, I was tempted to join Blockbuster's DVD by mail program so that I would also get some coupons for in-store movie rentals. After all I thought, brand doesn't matter. A movie buff requires only a store with movies and it will do. After constant pressures from few of my like-minded friends, I landed at Netflix.

Netflix was a suprise to me. I got DVDs delivered in one day interval and I've been watching movies nearly everyday for the last month. More than my urge to watch movies, it's Netflix thats pushing DVDs one after the other, three at a time, like a server robot to make me watch movies. Thats one reason I started the two-minute reviews category in the blog. Still, with the in-flow of movies, I've not been able to jot much. The more I watch the less time I get for other stuff. Cable no more attracts me. Even HBO seems so trivial. When I have Netflix, I can nearly watch any hollywood movie I wish, within a day's time. Though I miss those days of watching a movie trailer in Star TV and waiting for it to be premiered, Netflix is a killer service.

A friend who went ahead with Blockbuster cancelled it's service because even the first DVD arrived five days after him subscribing to it. Another friend gets movies regularly from Blockbuster. So Blockbuster isn't any less than Netflix except that Netflix has seven years of pioneering experience in DVD rental-by-mail industry. They also have a stupendous back-end. Probably a well developed Data Warehouse I suppose. They analyze every subscriber's movie likings and have put up a movie recommendation section that just rocks. Also their strategically placed collection centers play a vital role in Netflix's progress.

Netflix heavily relies on the well developed the American postal service. Else even day-dreaming a service like this would be waste of time. With heavy rumors surrounding Netflix being takenover by Amazon, though I hate consolidations in the industry, if only Amazon could add more value to the existing Netflix service, it would be a warm welcome. Also, Blockbuster planning to double-up it's rental stores as collection centres would increase it's service capabilities exponentially and would be a looming threat to Netflix. If only success depends on customer satisfaction, Netflix wins hands-down.

I already have 65 movies in a queue ranging from Psycho to Identity to Malena to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. So one day it's Dennis Weaver trying to runaway from a truck driver in Spielberg's Duel. Another day it's Branko Djuric as Ciki becoming victim of a bombing in No Man's Land. Be it Antonella Attili falling in love with movies and Cinema Paradiso, Renée Zellweger as Bridget Jones writing a diary, Robert De Niro boxing his way with the Raging Bull, John Cusack and you getting crazy inside the head of John Malkovich, Shahrukh as the stupendous Mohan Bharghava catching the next AirIndia to India or even Nana Patekar doing a realistic act as Sadhu Agashe while couting Ab Tak Chappan, the possiblities with Netflix are limited by the number of movies released. Netflixing Life !!

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[Click Pic for a bigger version]

For an aathu payyan like me, there aren't many choices on the Subway. Either I go with the foot long bread stuffed with cheese and other vegetables about which I have no clue or I end up drinking just Pepsi producing countless burps. Been eating on this sub-way for a while on what was recommended to me. This time I had a special recommendtion from a friend and it worked well. So if you are sub-beginner trying to catch hold of the rocket science behind a Subway Footlong [Salad Sandwich], here's the formula -

Roasted Garlic bread
Provolone Cheese
Olives
Onions
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Capsicum aka green pepper
Cucumbers
Honey Mustard Sauce
Oil & Vinegar Sauce
Parmesan Cheese powder
and finally
Salt & Pepper

This makes up for a delicious veggie footlong and when combined with a Lays onion sour cream chips + Pepsi, works well. Still, when I came back home I had some sambaar saadham with vendakka curry. Mega Delicious.

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Never get these free internet access deals. I did that over a month back. But after that I got a Comcast Cable Internet moved on.

Today, when I had to call them up to get the free deal disconnected, it was a big pain. I had to talk my way out. Whatever I had said they had some plan or the other which was literally forced to be taken. When I said 'No' to everything saying my Cable internet actually gives 4mbps download speed and I may not need any better internet connection, the voice from the other side just threw a cancellation number on me and hanged up. I was pretty polite to tell them why I may not need their connection anymore.

All these customer services are just a humbug. I feel a big letdown.

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Thalaivar movie in Redmond.

I don't say that. Seattle Tamil Sangam's website says it all. When the you say, you know the amount of enthusiasm behind that. Looks like they had issues in getting the Chandramukhi potti over the weekend. And so it's on a weekday, a Wednesday/Thursday. It's already a week late from the release and on a weekday. Still, appreciate the people working behind to get the show premiered.

It's on the Bella Botega Theatres, Redmond on Wednesday 20 April - 7:30 PM and also on Thursday 21 April 7:00 PM. Sulekha comes to use, finally. You can book tickets here on Sulekha. All thalaivar fans are requested to come with a poster of Rajini to make the place feel like home. I'm not sure if I can make it though. Though Redmond isn't far away, I'm not mobile to move around. Anyone promising a pickup/drop for me to the movie, will hopefully, by god's grace, get a year long project extension and their green card approved through PERM.

For more on movie premeire at Seattle contact, Sujatha Rajarajan[sujatharajarajan@hotmail.com] at 425-557-8337. Via Raj.

Disclaimer - If the next post is on Kamal, please don't blame me. It isn't intentional.

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It's a pain. I meant the phone cards. There are good ones and then there are bad ones. Some steal money and some steal minutes. Either way, you stand to loose those precious quarters and cents. If you are a desi, you would have succumbed to the diabolic world of phone cards. It's only through a phone card you might communicate, Amma Sowkiyama, Appa Bankla Check pottaachaa, Ammamma eppidi irukka in a single breath to reduce your the minutes running out of a phone card. When you do this a phone card would stay for longer days, allowing you to say more Sowkiyamas for 10 days. There are also cards with which you call up on a sunday and talk all the 45 minutes in one full stretch. I prefer the former. The later might carry a potential problem. You would have nothing to talk for more than 20 minutes and just to evaporate the remaining minutes, you even ask for, What happened to Mettiyoli's Bose mama ? or gossip about Pakkath aathu Gaachu aunty. That's boring.

Starting from 5c a minute or less there are all types of phone cards which rarely connect, usually disconnects abruptly and would round-off for 6 minutes making to blink with jaws wide open. Whatsoever, you just can get out of the clutches of these rectangular credit card sized telephone cards which have flashy colors and a rani-mukherjee-on-her-mobile-phone picture on the corner.

When someone told me Reliance Infocomm has a pre-paid option to India, I discounted it thinking about the state of Reliance telephones in India. Reliance in India has become junta's mobilephone. And you know what happens when you go-public. The rich and the poor buy it while the middle-class fearing misuse is still hanging around with Aircel/tel/whatever types. While Reliance's market is so huge the customer service is pathetic. They have definitely improved their billing system but it might take a few years to reach corporates and upper-middle class.

While I was busy typing a toll-free, a pin number and an Indian telephone number before I could hear someone say Hello, my friends were calling India without too much hassle using Reliance Call India. I set to try out Reliance. Reliance India Call really rocks, I should say. After tons of bitter experiences with the 10c phone cards, Reliance charging 12c a minute just doesn't matter. They don't eat minutes, steal money in the name of rounding-off or make you embarassed by disconnecting on the middle of the call with your In-laws. All you do is sign-up, give your plastic money details and then just register you US home/mobile number. Pickup a $5 card option or whatever that suits of your talking capacity!! From the registered phone, call up the toll-free Reliance number, it automatically recognizes your number and you just dial-up the India number. Vrooooom. Before you could lift you fingers from the number pad, Amma says, Ennada Kanna Saaptaacha. I love it.

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So all I could is to bundle up with a dozen flicks of various genres including the kollywood ones and call this movie marathon. The King County library provides a free access to all the 43 libraries around. For a book types, like me, it is a welcome break. I'm just ordering books that I haven't or wanted-to-but-couldn't-get back in India and read them to glory.

The first one was an awe-inspiring auto-biography, Every Second Counts by the tour-de-france champion Lance Armstrong. This guy after surviving a cancer, pitche