Call me Captain!

89 hours of flying practice....
about $9000 expenditure....
1 and a half year of patient pursuit...
pushing the time limits to make it to the scheduled flight...
a day of grueling oral and 2 hrs of flight test...
a life long license to explore the skies... priceless.

Yes I am done with my private pilot license. Yes, now I am licensed to soar the skies just as the mighty eagle soars the skies. Well not literally, but yes close enough..
Here are the things that I want to do next:

• Go at night over airports with part time lighting that I can turn on from airplane and turn them on :)
• Go over the coast line to have a beautiful scenery
• Take my wife on a full moon day and watch the moonlight shine on our faces
• Go over salton sea with my friends :)
• Need to get a multi-engine rating sometime when I get more time

For all those people who think its late to start anything new, come on folks, you got a lot more ahead than what you left behind. And if you think you dont have enough skills, then dodge this, I got my pilot license, anyone can get.

Hilarious business idea got bumped

I have never seen a more innovative idea than what is mentioned in the following story nor have I seen a funny way of describing how it screwed him. Read this and enjoy.

wonderflul

Playing for Pizza

Remember that train scene in the movie "Venki" where Ravi Teja asks the girl sitting across if she reads Johan Greeesham's novel? Well after a long time I read a John Grisham's novel, "Playing for Pizza." It is a novel about a third rated NFL player who couldnt make his mark here in USA, ends up in Parma, Italy playing their league and wins them a championship and everybody is happy. Sounds pretty straightforward? Yes, it is indeed that plain vanilla form. You would think there might be a plot, a unexpected twist or at least some action. Surprise, there is none of these :)
There are a lot of characters in the novel which, frankly,you would wonder why they existed. A few days romance of the hero with a opera singer and she is gone. A game played and a player dropped out. A totally useless supposedly heroine who has no bearing on the story line. Story line, I wonder what the story line for this novel is.
Good things about the novel is that he introduces a lot of foods made in Parma, Italy. Parmesan cheese, Parma ham etc. Some explanation of the arches in Italy.
Overall, it was a waste; spent 6 hrs on the novel; but was worth the time pass from Chicago to San Diego.

Clean up your computer once in a while!

A couple of weeks ago, I observed that my computer got so damn slow I started wondering what happened. When I checked the free space it said I have just 2GB of free space. A month ago it used to be 20 GB. Something terrible happened which I was not aware of. I didnt know where to start looking. So I started checking where the most of the junk lied. I saw there were a lot of files which I no longer use. I deleted them. I deleted few other files, some debug files, it was still just 2GB gain. I looked under Start->Programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> disk clean up. It is a beautiful tool that Windows introduces (I dont know when) to clean up the disk. I ran the disk clean up utility. It took its own sweet time to return back with its analysis. A whooping 16.7GB that it says can be cleaned. It was mostly temporary files, some dump files etc. But I could have never laid hands on them manually. They were hidden in some n number of folders below C:\
After I did the above, my computer was considerably faster. I also ran a spyware software just to make sure I didnt accumulate any of the spyware/adware programs while browsing the internet.
Overall, I am much better now and my laptop is much faster.

While doing so I found out something very interesting. The same happens even at our homes. We keep accumulating a lot of junk (old clothes which you never use, some old mails, magazines, books) that occupy a lot of space and apparently serve no purpose except to take the space and invoke negative feelings in us. Once in a while, we should get rid of them to make more space and peace of mind.
Any suggestions folks?

Seek Feedback!

Many a times we deliver a lecture, a presentation or even just a public speech but never try to rate it. We never try to find out whether we were good, bad or worse, what the positive points were and what the negative points were. Even if we do it is not sure that we would get any genuine feedback especially if the seeker is the boss or superior of the person seek. But seeking feedback is one of the most important things to do if you want to improve. In electrical engineering, feedback loops are often used to keep the system under control and to make it robust. So should it be in the real world. Any time there is a possibility to seek the feedback it is best to seek. At the same time give the most genuine feedback to those who seek it. (You may have to make a disclaimer about the frankness :) ).
Samuel Johnson once said "Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most like it least." The same is true with feedback too. We would rather be happy with false praise than be rescued with true feedback. We should try to come out of this mentality and seek feedback so that we improve ourselves.
Seek feedback about your positive points, your negative points and seek feedback on how you can improve yourselves. Listen to everyone around, make a list on what they suggest, analyze them and make a plan for yourself to improve. You would be happy that you did so.
I seek genuine feedback on how this article went. I am sure I would get more negative points than positive, but I hope to improve myself in the coming ones. I followed "Write drunk, edit sober" formula. Hope I would get back and edit this sometime.

Wedding clashes!

Recently a lot of my friends got married. I was closely involved with the wedding proceedings of couple of them. In the process I found out that wedding time is a time of clashes. Elders think that bride and bridegroom dont listen to them and dont have enough respect for the rituals that go on at the wedding. Kids think that the rituals are ridiculous especially in this age. It got me thinking whose mistake is it that there exists this kind of difference? Do kids really condescend the rituals? So I asked them why, if they , condescend the rituals. Primary reason I got is, it is old style, its baseless and mostly why are they even there? What is their significance? So I went and asked elders what their significance is, and interestingly they dont know the answer. They did it in their marriage and so they want their kids to do it in their marriage. Why, dont ask, we cant answer such questions. You folks dont have respect for our culture. Wow! I thought. Just because you cant answer our questions, you lead to the conclusion that we dont have respect for culture. phew!
I strongly believe that the rituals exist for a reason. No civilization creates something unless they believe there is a reason. The reason may be absurd, but there would be a reason. It may not be a rational one but still there should be a reason. Unfortunately our curiosity to question and find out the reason has diminished and so did the duty of passing those details down to your next generation. If only our parents have found out why they are doing the rituals and answered our questions, may be the difference in the opinion on the rituals wont have been there. I ventured into and found out few of them and believe it or not, they make sense (at least when you put them in to the time line they were created). One can do a full phd on the rituals that happen just in a marriage.
How many of you know why there are games after the wedding in which both the bride and the bridegroom have to participate? How many of you know why apply turmeric and sandalwood to everyone who attends a hindu wedding? Why do they tie three knots? What do those vows mean? Not many people know the meaning. There are several of such small rituals that crept into our culture for a reason. If anyone is interested in either questioning or answering the questions posed, please do so. I would love to continue this discussion over to other topics too.
On a side note, ever heard of the saying, never clean your ears at night? Why do you think it exists?

My wedding invitation

Hello All,
It gives me immense pleasure to invite you all for my wedding on December 7th, 2008 at 1:35am (early hours of Monday) and for the reception on December 9th, from 7pm onwards. Please consider this mail as my personal invitation and plan to attend the wedding and the reception.
I can be reached at 9849961911 after 6pm.
Thanks
Suresh