I got one of those "you know you grew up in the 80's when..." e-mails. and I must say that there were a couple things in it that were absolutely hilarious. Here is a sampling:

> > 3. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Belair"
> > 12. When it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
> > 15. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
> > 17. You played the game "MASH" (Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House) with friends at school.
> > 22. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
> > 26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
> > 32. You thought Sheera and He-Man should hook up.
> > 36. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
> > 40. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
> > 43. "Dont worry, be happy"
> > 52. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.

Had dinner with my friend Sherry tonight at a place called Craw Daddy's. The food was good. It's actually pretty weird. I was planning on making salmon for Sherry tonight and I was going to try pan-searing it on our cast-iron pan. I've never done this before but I totally wanted to try it out. Then for a sauce, I was thinking of making some sort of melange of orange and garlic butter. I didn't end up cooking cause Dave and Veronica were cooking after I got out of the shower. Instead - Sherry and I went out to this place and what did I see on the menu? Blackened Salmon (pan seared in a cast iron skillet) with a orange, rosemary butter sauce with glazed carrots, sauteed mushrooms and wild rice. It was totally weird to see that on the menu. I ordered it. It was good. I definitely think that I could make that so we'll see when I get around to it.

This weekend - going to Minneapolis to see Nikhil, aka Jugular, perform - can't wait! He is going to be the bomb!!!

It's 10:00. Time for bed. Good night.

folks...the weekend in toronto was fantastic. But alas, it was WAY TOO SHORT. I got into town on Friday night - arrived at around 8:00 pm. But I didn't leave the airport until almost 9:30 cause my brother's flight from London was delayed. Needless to say, I was tired and restless and SICK OF THE AIRPORT. Got back to Scarborough after a taxi fiasco and finally relaxed. Had dinner with my brother (my mom had left all the food out for us). I then met up with Tchao and we went to Marty's place to hang out with him, Craig, Chad and Morgan. It was a great evening...totally what I was looking for and very chilling. We ended up at this place called the Unicorn - an Irish pub at Yonge and Eg - it was fun and there was a very eccectic group of weird peeople as well. The night went pretty late and it was just awesome to chill with Smith and Tchao.

Prior to getting to Marty, something crazy really happened. I went to apartment 406 with Tchao right behind me. I heard noises inside so I didn't bother knocking and I just opened the door and went inside. I said "Hello" but didn't hear anyone or see anyone in the living room. Then I look right and saw a girl in the bathroom brushing her teeth. I didn't see all of her but she kind of leaned back to look past the wall of the bathroom and said "hey". Then she realized who I was, or actually, who I wasn't and she said "Who the hell are you" I then realized that I was in the wrong apartment and quickly said "Sorry Maam, I'm in the wrong apartment". Tchao and I ran out the door and down the hall to the stair case where we stopped to catch our breath and laugh like crazy. Alls I gots to say is holy!, I can't believe I did that. I totally violated that woman's personal space. I eventually remembered that Marty lives in 506 - we went up and it was all good. Telling that story to people is pretty funny. I just think...what must have been going through her head when she saw a complete stranger in her apartment?

This must happen more often than we think cause apartment buildings all look the same and I'm sure that when someone expects someone else, they leave their door open. Anyway...that was a pretty crazy evening.

Saturday was great - my mom made a FANTASTIC lunch. It was SO YUMMY. Man, if I am ever even half the cook that my mom is...that will be incredible cause she truly is the best out there. The way she mixes spices and all the food - it's just magical. Saturday night, I saw my niece Ankita and it was great to hang with her. After that - I went to Fez Batik with my brother, Kanchan and Sachin despite the crazy storm. Fez is an awesome club and they played wicked music. Luke, Malloy and Luen also joined us that evening so it was a fun time. Unfortunately mama nature kinda threw a wrench in my plans cause I was expecting between 25 - 30 people coming out for the night. We stayed until 3 though and it was so awesome the whole time.

Sunday, woke up and got to shovel. Yeah - that was loads of fun. Man - I haven't shovelled in so long...and it was difficult. There was such high winds and blowing snow - it was crazy. Also, there was tonnes of blowing snow and every time we cleared the driveway, it would just dump back down. Sunday was pretty much a lazy day of chilling with my family and enjoying good food yet again. I flew on MidWest Express and it was only delayed for about 35 minutes so that wasn't bad. MidWest was pretty good - there was complimentary champagne. The fresh baked cookies were great too. And leather seats. Basically - it's all business class all the time...pretty sweet.

Well folks...I'm not sure if this message all made sense or if it was clear but I was at work until 8:30 today and it's now 11:00 so it's time to go to sleep. Good night all and for those that I saw or chatted with this weekend in Toronto - it was fantastic to see ya...

Tonight was the 300th, er 302nd episode of the Simpsons. I must say that this show has been fantastic over the years. 14 years of it and still a few more for sure...At times, I question the writing but I definitely think that this most recent year has been an improvemnt over the past couple. Attached is a really good article about the Simpsons from The Toronto Star tonight...take a look.

This weekend was really good. Had a good V-day...dinner and a movie with a friend. Yesterday was a lot of fun as well - went indoor rock climbing. I was a lot better this time than I remember being last time so I'm happy about that. I really wanna go again now though. I will only get better as I get into better shape as well. Speaking of that...last week - I went to the gym 3 times and had a Volleyball game on Thursday night so I think I did pretty well. This week will be more of the same starting with the gym tomorrow after work. I've been going to these aerobics classes after work everyday and they are a great workout...doing things like pilates, kickboxing, step class, and other really good cardio and weight training.

So I think that I've made some strides in the Digital Camera search...take a look at these two and let me know what you think. If you have any suggestions on other ones that are similar to these guys, I'd love to hear them...

Canon Powershot S230 - Digital Elph
Canon Powershot S30

If you have any suggestions...just send me a quick message and let me know. I'd really appreciate it.
Also - if you know how to get candle wax out of carpet, please let me know that as well.

Thanks,
Good night.

Check out this site...it's www.overstock.com and you can get what seems to be pretty cheap deals on end of the line stuff...could be useful for some of ya'll.

I am 11 days older than Kobe Bryant! What the hell is that about?!?! The boy turns 25 this summer on August 23. And tonight, he dropped 51 points versus Denver (he didn't even play the 4th quarter). This is his 7th straight game with over 35 points. Damn, he is absolutely amazing. He better be the MVP this season...no one can touch him. I remember some articles about 2 years ago...they were talking about a trade - Kobe for Vince straight up. At the time, people (including me) were saying...I don't know - that's a tough call. Where is Kobe's heart? blah blah blah. Damn, don't we look stupid? I have to say that we were quite wrong at that time.

Christine - that is a funny story about your fish. Just ask Mr. Tchao about the poisonous rocks he put in my fishes tank about 18 months ago...
Luen - congrats on the car and I totally understand what you're saying about being a solo driver and contributing to so much pollution. the problem though is that everyone has different schedules so car pooling just aint that feasible all the time
Karen - thanks for sending that link to that "friendster.com" site - that is pretty cool
Etch - way to go with the gym routine...I am doing pretty well so far in February as well (hopefully I'll keep it up)
Malloy - hope that things turn around and i promise...that e-mail is coming soon!

Good night all.

Hello all...long time no write. It's about 9:30 tonight and first of all, Fox - you guys got me tonight! I thought today was the final episode of Joe Millionaire but that damn butler came on at the end and said we would have to wait until next Monday for the special 2 hour finale (including a crazy twist ending that no one will expect). I really want to write more and give you a proper update but I am tired and going to go to bed I think...Here is the quick synopsis. I was in Chicago for the weekend with Kevin, Tai, Jen and Dave and some other peeps. It was a really fun trip and we had a great time.

I just watched this awesome show about traveling in Tokyo on the travel channel. So wicked and I totally want to go back! They showed Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ginza...it was so cool to see it all. Did I say that I really want to go back?

My bro is in London right now for some job interviews...hopefully all goes well and he gets something out of this trip.

Tonight - I made this awesome paella dish...well it was going to be awesome but damnit! I fugged up. I accidentally left the burner on too high and burned some of the rice. Since the heat was so high, it evaporated the water and thus, the rice wasn't totally cooked. The taste was so good but damn, it could have been awesome. I am so embarrased...

Time for bed now. Good night all.

Let's Go Raptors! Clap, Clap, cl, cl, Clap. Man - that was a fun evening. Final Score: Raptors 98 - Bucks 95. I am 2-0 when it comes to Raptors-Bucks games here in Milwaukee. For the first three quarter, I was sitting in the upper deck with my classmates but in the fourth quarter a few of us met up with a co-worker who had amazing seats. We went down and sat with him. 6 rows from the court directly opposite the Bucks bench. It was so cool to sit down there and see everything going on live. The players are so huge - you reallly appreciate it in person. Once I get my photos, I'll be sure to show ya'll. So, it seems that everyone is saying that Vince shouldn't start in the NBA All Star game this season which is on Sunday. It's a touchy subject cause he has only played about 13 games so far this season BUT he was voted in by the fans who get to vote in the all star starting lineup. Some players like Ray Allen are saying that he should step aside cause other players deserve it more than he does. I'm torn - I see both sides of the arguement.

Check out these two e-mails...I thought they were both interesting:

GLOBALIZATION:
What is globalization, one may ask. Well, below here is probably the best example on the definition of globalization.
Question : What is the height of globalization?
Answer : Princess Diana's death
Question : How come?
Answer : An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian Who was high on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines! And this is written by a
pakistani, using Bill Gates' technology which he stole from the Japanese. And you are probably reading this on one of the IBM clones that use taiwanese-made chips, and Korean made monitors, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by lorries driven by Indians, hijacked by Indonesians and finally sold to you by a Chinese! That's Globalization!!!

and this one about Heart Attacks could be helpful...By no means however am I saying that I've consulted any medical sources but I am simply telling ya what I've heard...

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK ALONE
If everyone who gets this sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we'll save at least one life. Let's say it's 6:15 p.m. and you're driving home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You're really tired, upset and frustrated. Suddenly, you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home; unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. What can you do? You've been trained in CPR but the guy that taught the course neglected to tell you how to perform it on yourself. Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed to be in order.

Without help, the person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing

repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough. The cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. And a cough must be repeated about every 2 seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives! From Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240s newsletter.

I watched Office Space this evening...what a hilarious movie. I saw it back during my Intria days and man was it hilarious to see that again. TPS reports will always crack me up! And so will that scene where they beat the crap out of the printer - man, haven't we all wanted to do that at some point? It's late...I've gotta go to bed.

GO RAPTORS TOMORROW NIGHT - visiting the Bucks and I WILL BE THERE!!!

Hello ladies and gentlemen...I am well rested and now I can tell you the proper story since last night, I was a little bit on the tired side. We went to this place called Madison Masala. After a nice Indian dinner, we were sitting around chilling and drinking and slowly watching this restaurant transform into a lounge. It was really cool to observe...the DJ was setting up his equipment and the tables were being moved...it was slowly getting transformed. Then as the night continued on, we got into the hookah. The hookah just tasted so good and we had so many different flavours - mango, rose and something funky called faukfahenah (which was basically like sour apple). As we were smoking this stuff, it went down so smooth...it was money. After Madison Masala - we continued walking down State street and ended up at Blue Velvet, a martini bar. The music was so eclectic and it led to our crazy conversation about music which ranged from Sir Mix a Lot to Another Bad Creation to Enigma to Kris Kross to Alanis Morrisette. Very very strange converstaion - possibly induced by the wacky tabaccy that was inhaled earlier in the evening.

When I got home on Friday night, it was late but I wasn't totally tired so I started to watch Vanilla Sky. It was a pretty cool movie - very different and really makes you think. It's full of symbolism which is kind of cool and it is quite unique. There were times though that I was thinking - what is going on? Like, who is Jules Vern and why was she refered to like 3 times in the movie? I definitely have to watch it again. The soundtrack is really good though. And DAMN - I love Penelope Cruz. In this movie, as always, she is so beautiful but her character is so unique and cute and bright and spontaneous - it's amazing. I really dig "Sophia" in this movie...REALLY DIG HER!

On Saturday, I went on my first ever Brewery tour at the Sprecher Brewery. The tour guide was quite knowledgeable (I guess most tour guides have to be, eh?). This place makes beer and sodas and we were tasting quite a bit after the tour so that made some peeps very happy. After the tour, we all (like 15 of us) went back to Andy and Raymond's place to chill out and drink and watch TV and play cards. I got killed in this one drinking game called 6 in 1 and had to drink a lot of beer which totally sucked cause I am not a beer fan. The rest of the night - just chilled out although we did all go to a Chinese restaurant for dinner - speaking of which....Gong hey fat choi to all my chinese brothers and sisters out there.

I am absolutely baffled by the news of the Columbia space shuttle that crashed yesterday in Houston and Louisiana. It is so crazy to actually imagine what was going through the astronaughts heads as they knew there was no hope. The debris just kept accelerating as it fell towards the ground and the heat generated must have been absurd. It's truely remarkable that everything was limited to less than 2 states because it could have been even worse. They still don't know what went wrong but there are some theories regarding a piece of the thermal layer that fell off during take off 2 weeks ago. Being an astronaught is definitely very near the top of my All-time Career Aspirations. I wonder how an event or circumstance like this causes anyone to rethink their decision about being an astronaught. I suppose the same kind of scenarios should be applied to other professions like a physician or lawyer.

Did anyone watch the Simpsons tonight? Damn that was funny. Here are some quotes:
The tetris scene was absolutely, positively priceless - especially the way he arranged Bart and Lisa into the car.
Rainier Wolfcastle to Homer - "Go to sleep little fatso"
Apu referring to Maggie's diper - "That is the most pungent smell in the world…and I am from India"
Ralph Wiggum after being pepper sprayed by Marge - "Even my boogers are spicey."

and in the second episode tonight:
Homer is painting on a wall and it says "El Homo" because his justification is that If Bart can be El Barto – then he’ll be

That's it for this evening...time for bed folks.
Good Night,'

It's 3:00 am and I just got back from the bar. I was in Madison tonight (the capital of Wisconsin) and had an awesome time. We went to this Indian restaurant for dinner and then it turns into a lounge/bar after so it was really cool. The best part is that they have a houka bar which is basically flavoured tobacco. Dude - you get quite a buzz off this stuff and it tastes so good! I'll do some research and find out more about this Indian/Pakistani phenomenon (I think it is anyway). I'm pretty tired right now and can't really concentrate so I'll tell you more about this tomorrow. Good night.

p.s. I just heard that Lebron James got screwed tonight because he accepted 2 throwback jerseys valued at $850 and he isn't allowed to take anything more than $100. So, as of today, he is suspended for the remainder of the season which is pretty crazy...