First snow of the season

We at Albuquerque had our first snow of the season this Thursday.
The day was dripping with rain all along and the temperatures were below freezing. I was hoping to see a good snow and nothing happened until the clock stuck 12 in the night. And then it all begun, showers of white pure powders showering non-stop. Midnight had never been so bright. We got out and soaked in it for atleast half an hour and enjoyed the beautiful potraits of snow ladden bushes created in our garden. If only it wasn't a Thrursday and we didn't have to go to office the next day, we would have enjoyed a bit more.
The best thing about Albuquerque is, snow doesn't interfere with our life, except for making it even more beautiful. Don't envy you east coast folks!!
There will be more snow in the coming months, but nothing like the first one of the season, it is pure magic.
Love winters!!! Somehow, winter adds more energy to my spirit and happiness to my mood.

Outliers

Started reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

What refreshing thoughts!!
After finishing the first chapter, I decided to do 'a chapter a day', instead of reading it like fiction. I don't believe the book will lead me to success but I think it will change the way I look at certain things. A different angle of thought is what will be achieved.

Musings on a train

The melody the train sings with the tracks;
The marathon of the greens passing by;
The rustling of the passengers;
The mere idleness of time
Would have been wonderful..If only...U were here......

Herb Garden

Plants with their new produce bring out a lot of joy in me, even if it is a hot spicy chilli. So when my small thai green chilli plant that I planted few months ago, bore 2 long green chillies, it lit up my day immensely. There is so much happiness in watching something grow to which you contribute even a little.

ode to an iPad

Bought an IPad and fell in love with it.
eNews articles never looked better
Games never seemed so swifter
"Little things" and "Flight control" so much jazzier

Photos wore much more glitter
Youtube videos were more bigger
and My talkweb blog looked so much prettier
Love the interface and the hardware
No wonder we spent most of the weekend
Fighting for,who would hold it longer

Penned on 08/15 by Kalpana

UP & The magic of animation

This trailer on UP made me see the movie. I was never into animated movies, until I saw Ratatouille. Not all the animations make it to the mark, but selected ones like Ratatouille, Wall-e , Kung fu panda and the Shrek series got my glued to the screen and made me buy their blue ray versions forever to keep.

Animations are really creativity at its best. These movies carry a very strong story line, soothing music, picturesque backgrounds, artistic renderings and more. There cannot be a bad actor on the screen, unlike the real human movies. The expressions that can be brought on these sketched characters is unbeatable. The way Wall-E looks at Eva, Ratatouille blinks when he gets caught and the expressions of Kungfu Panda when he finds out his father's secret is really nothing are a few to mention. Once you are into the movie, you forget that the cast is not real. Surprisingly these stories also pack a lot of moral in them. Subtle messages are taught to young children watching them.

UP for example is a very heartwarming story. I almost cried when the first song was over. It tells the story of an old man and his wife, who chase their childhood dream all their life, only to get it run over by the nuances of everyday life. It also tells how human relationships value much more than materialistic wishes. And all this in a very colorful setting. UP is definitely getting added to my favorites list.

Please leave your valuable comments and add more animations that I may have missed and please don't include Avatar in the list.

next movie on the "movies to see" : Inception

Mediterranean Diet Pyramid

Saw this pyramid at my physician's office and liked it.

On a rainy evening.......

It was a rainy evening. I was all by myself in the house, sipping tea and watching the rain drops fall, with a distant view of the sunset. The rain stopped abruptly, like someone had a switch pulled off. The sun had also finished saying its goodbye for the day.Having robbed off my good view, I let out a small grunt and turned the computer on for some browsing. Quite a few minutes should have passed, and I could hear the clock tick 7.

"shrush.. shrush" . I glanced up from my monitor wondering if I had imagined that noise. A long pause of absolute silence follows and I get back to browsing. The noises start again and I begin to pay more attention. We rarely hear any noise in our apartment except for the occasional cars passing by. I have never heard footsteps rustling and I was clearly hearing some now, right in our backyard. That sent some goose bumps up my arms and I could see small hairs standing up already.

The noises continue to increase and I can sure hear some whispers now.A young male voice was saying "I loved her so much...She shouldn't have.." , another adds in " I am sorry it had to end this way.. " .

My heart started to double its pumping rate and I sure got some sweaty palms. With shaky fingers, I lift the vents to the backyard a little bit. There , I can clearly see two men standing with shovels. My mind starts racing, "Shovels? What would anyone do with shovels at this time of the evening, in the dark?" I have never seen either of them around here. From what I could make out of their silhouette in the dark, one was tall and lean and the other a little shorter. I crane my neck to get a better view and there, I can see a deep pit they have dug out and a huge wooden box near it. My adrenalin pumps up and my brain freezes for a minute. Recovering myself, I start debating if I should call 911. That's when I hear a knock on the front door.

With all the courage I could muster, I drag myself to the door. Thanks to the peepholes on the door, I was able to see that it was none other than my husband. I quickly usher him in and brief him on the details. He wasn't as scared as me and stressed that we should walk out and talk to them. While I hide behind him, he opens the door and takes a peek. As soon as the door opens, one of the men, the tall one, gets on his heels and runs away. Now, very sure that something is definitely not right, I start to type in the number 9 on my phone.

The other man stands there for a second or two and then starts walking towards us, the dirty shovel still in his hand. I back off a little, eying the grill cleaner stick nearby, if at all an emergency calls for it. He greets us " Hi, I am Dave.. I just moved in to your next apartment a week ago". So much for knowing neighbors, we had no clue who was next door. He goes on " I was just burying the person I loved most in my life. You should come see". I try to signal my husband to back-off and run away from there. But he proceeds on, walking towards that big brown box. The other man opens the lid and there she is, a big old German Shepard, peacefully sleeping like a big baby.


Back Notes : k.. this never happened. But it was a vivid dream, I had last week.
I don't think pets gets buried in the backyard in US, but in my home land, pets always have their final resting place at home.
To explain the location better, adjacent houses in my apartment complex, share gardens.

Cure it all without fixing

This has happened to me all my life and I have never paid attention to it until this week. Three instances in one week made me sit down and take notice.

I fell sick, which is not a very common thing, and then my fever hikes to 102+. Then it reaches 102.9 , I start to have fever chills and cover myself with at least 3 blankets. I remember blanking out a few years back when it reached 104 . So we decide to go to the emergency and hastily pack everything. The triage nurse at the emergency takes my vitals and my temperature is back to 98.6. I didn't know what to think - was it our thermometer that flopped, or the emergency room's or was it just my body faking it out. The nurse mocks us with our thermometer. To save further embarrassment, we get a new thermometer at the nearby Walgreens and head back home.

Back at home, and 30 mins later, I had started to shiver heavily and the new thermometer shows 102.4. We try both the new and old ones interchangeably and end with the same high range. Just to make sure, we test both on the husband, who is perfectly normal at 98+. So much for old thermometers. Back to the emergency again, and believe it or not, it was back to 98.6 and all my shivers were magically gone.

That was the first instance, the same repeated again with a abdominal pain at the end of the week. And when it was time to see the doctor, I am back to being hale , healthy and at the pink of my health.

While I found reasons to brush this off as some vague psychological behavior between my mind and the hospital, something else happens.

My cooking range stopped working and none of the bigger burners would work. That is a total blow to my daily cooking. I was happy to escape a day or two citing that as the reason to eat out. Then home food is home food. We called up the apartment people to report the problem, and boom ..the burners were fine again and started working as though they never stopped. Now, what do I make of this?

Anyone else with the same thoughts or am I the only weirdo?

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (VTV) Posters

I am a big fan of Gautham's films, the notable ones being Kakha Kakha, Minnalae and Varanam Ayiram.

I assume the photographers (or whoever is in charge of the posters) of his new film VTV, were suddenly out of creative ideas, that they started copying their posters from some of the older super hit films. These films are my ever green favorites. VTV manages to give a poor imitation of those memories.

Though the group claims it as a tribute to the mid-time hits, all I see in the posters is, intelligent advertising. Now, when I search for Alaipayuthey in Google, I end up with at least one image of VTV. It will also help the film in connecting with the masses easily, projecting familiar images.


The sad part is , Simbu and Trisha are far away from creating the magic that was woven into some of these ManiRatnam films. I just hope that Gautham has made VTV worthy enough, to be compared to these classics. The wait is on until Valentines day, 2010.


Copy Cat 1: Idhyathai Thirudadhae



Copy Cat 2: Minsara Kanavu



Copy Cat 3: Uyirae



Copy Cat 4: Khakha Khakha



Copy Cat 5: Alaipayuthey