Greetings from/of Providence

so, it's been a week - AND my very first weekend is just getting over - in the Unites States of America - a country I never in my wildest dreams expected to be my first (voluntary) international experience - for various reasons! Ok, not counting my stop over at Frankfurt and of course, strictly speaking, this trip isn't voluntary either!

anyhow, landed in Atlanta, Georgia (that's where our company's US office is located and no, I don't work at Coke) and my first impressions were rather on the lines of "So, this is the US? What's the big deal really?...etc." Coz apart from wider and cleaner roads, I didn't really 'feel' anything.

Moving on, spent a day and a half there and then, flew down to Providence, Rhode Island where my clients are located. Now, THIS is a really pretty city - firstly, it is kinda compact and therefore, nice! secondly, the buildings here are a mix of old/quaint red brick stuff and new, modern high rise-y looking stuff. thirdly, there was left over snow all obver the place which looked just right around all the red!

So, what exactly have I been doing here? Am officially here on a business trip for a project but have been trying to get some sightseeing plans built in to my shedule. The first dampener (pun unintended) to that came in the form of heavy rains today that killed my plans to go over to Boston for the day. I spent yesterday walking up and down the beautiful roads stockign up on my groceries and stuff coz snowfall is predicted next week. Next weekend I need to be in Atlanta again and so that leaves me with two more weekends to 'play' with - one is DEFINITELY in for NYC - what boosts my trip is that I have friends there so finally, won't be groping my way through a city! and another for Newport, RI and Boston (Amen!)

What have I learnt?

• how to turn on the heating - didn't realise that I didn't have it on at all for two whole days - and I was freezing my a*& off!
• how to use the commercial laundromat - was praying hard that it wouldn't eat up my quarters like the damn vending machine in Atlanta did!
• how to use a payphone - do you put the coins in first or do you dial first? well, now i know!

Since then, the only leisure activity - apart from my long exploratory walks - I have done is to go watch a movie (Brokeback Mountain - the truck loads of hype maybe did it but I didn't feel it was all THAT great) and I plan to go back for more. Hope to have some pictires of the beautiful city the next time I post.

I absolutely love the peaceful solitude of my existence and the fact that now, I finally am getting the chance to take care/be responsible for my own self!

Oh, and Life is just so convenient here!

(I wanted to say a lot more, but for now, this will have to do.)

Uh-Oh! It seems...

....birds of a feather do flock together! Took this test I found on AE's blog, and here're the results for all...uhh...only appropriate people...to see:



You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.


I have to admit though that in the question about meeting dead people, I selected Michelangelo Buonarroti (painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel) mostly beacsue he was Italian.

For Rookie Instructional Designers

How to invent company names – a quick guide

Q) Why do you need to think so much while creating a company name – after all, it’s just a scenario and hey, it’s fictitious, right?

A) Wrong. The name that you create for this yes, fictitious company is extremely important in the whole run. There are several reasons for this:

• It is the first association with the rest of the case that the student makes so it needs to be realistic. Remember, when a student reads a case, he is also forming pictures in his mind. Any hint of non-realism or contradictory information will actually detract him from the task he needs to perform.
• It needs to create the necessary impact for the student to be interested to know the whats – of the situation and the problem he needs to solve.

Steps

1. Sit back. Close your eyes and imagine your company – what does it look like? What do the people who work there look like – bustling with energy or going about their work seriously? What are they wearing – formal/informal clothing? Do you see more machines or men? Etc…It is very important to have seen beyond just a name because the rest of your case study will be molded around this vision. No vision=ambiguous/contradictory information.
2. Based on the permutation-combination of all your responses to this introspective series of questions, select a name that represents:
   the company’s core business – for example, SuperSpeed Airways. This aspect is especially important when you are naming companies in the ‘manufacturing’ vs. ‘service’ industry.
   the company’s image as you visualized it – for example, let’s say you have to create a name for a company that manufactures mobile phones - if you visualized a formal setting for this company, a name like ‘Competel’ would suit the image (representing ‘competent’ and ‘telecom’). On the other hand, an informal setting could possibly lead to a name like “Chirpen Telecom’ …or something!
   Since you are obviously aware of the key task and situation you want to weave in the case at this point, it would be a good idea to check if this name matches those series of situations.

Do’s

1. Keep them as realistic to ‘real’ company names as possible. For example, Garbledeegook Software Solutions may be your private snigger/joke but may not exactly create the relevant impact.
2. Very important: Once invented, do a Google search to ensure that such a registered company does not exist – else they can sue you J … but if you are inventive enough, they might just hire you for naming their next product!

Dont’s

For God’s sake, avoid the mistake of naming the company with something that would reflect their product or image in a negative manner. For example, who would want to buy SquirtJet Printers or LeakaLot pens, etc.


Good luck and happy inventing!

An Endless Fit of Happiness

May your restless heart and straight-faced smiles
Have found that space, have marked those miles

May you finally have found that place to call your own
May you now believe that you were never lone

May you be resting your weary feet from that long journey uphill
And may you too get to experience that endless fit of happiness
When time, but all, stood still.

Thank you, Ranajit Sir for everything and hope you, one day, can forgive.

Wedding Whittles

They say weddings are a time to gain and to lose – damn right! Losing sleep and hair and gaining pimples and weight seem to be the order of the day! As I have mentioned before, my family has established something of a tradition what with consecutive weddings in the last week of December over the last three years.

So after considerable deliberation, I can safely say that these are what weddings are all really about for the people who are not, in fact, the to-be-wed couple :

• If you are married, then it is everyone’s birthright to know the details of your sex life right down to when you intend to stop using protection and start having wild, unbridled sex in the hope of giving some “good news.”
• If you are unmarried you are not ‘important’ enough and have no specific role to play in any of the elaborate stuff – however you are perfectly free to drink your sodden, single self silly.
• If you are unmarried and are related to the person getting married, then every single man or woman is potential ‘next time’ material – the hushed whispers wonder whether those rumors about your being gay are true after all.
• People you have never met/who ‘met’ you when you peed on their lap (when you were a kid…I hope) begin conversations with “MY! How much you have grown! Do you recognize me?” – not right now I don’t, but I could try peeing on you again, maybe the stain would jog my memory some?

...and a Happy New Year!

have had a crrrazzzyyyy week what with a wedding in the family and all that - in the last week of December for the third consecutive year. It's becoming a family tradition of sorts to get married sometimes this time! All that ensued will probably form a new post - the second of my three resolutions is to be a little less lazy!)

Meanwhile...

Here's to a happy tomorrow full of everything you wished for and then some more. May this year be better than years past and much worse than the ones to come. Happy 2006 to you and your loved ones.

Hope it's all good.

My resolutions:
1. Be more kind and less torturous to my hair.
2. Be a little less lazy.
3. Take myself a little less seriously.

Guess, 'less' is the new 'more' then!

Cheers to that.