Ladies and Gentlemen,

How ya'll doing? I apologize for my lack of blogging presence over the past few days. I needed to get away from the computer for a bit and I also ran into some computer issues so that stalled me as well. Damn, we are so reliant and dependent on these damn things. On Friday afternoon at work, I got the fateful "Windows 2000 cannot startup...blah, blah, blah....something something corrupt" message and immediately started shiting my pants. I thought - there it goes - "I've lost everything". After some scrounging around and lots of driving back and forth between my office and the IT deployment centre, I actual got my laptop back, reimaged, and working fine. The upside - didn't loose any data files so that was great. The downside - lost all my customized settings, especially in Outlook where things are now working very much the way I don't like. Slowly, everything is getting back in order but one bummer is that I've had to reinstall a bunch of software and unfortunately, I don't have Adobe Photoshop anymore cause that was from my buddy Phil - gotta get a CD from someone now to get it back.

Aside from computer ish, this weekend and the past few days before it have been pretty good. On Thursday night, I went to a Salsa club called El Babalu. I danced a bit and had a pretty good time. It was a YPM event - Young Professionals of Milwaukee. It's kind of a cool event to go and check out cause these guys who organize have varied events with one thing in mind. They want to have various "yuppies" from around the Milwaukee area mingle and meet each other. The plus side is that I get to meet people who don't work at the same company so I can branch out a bit. The event itself was pretty good - a fair amount of people. One crazy thing was this girl who fainted twice. She was really close to me, or maybe I was really close to her both times. And she even smacked the back of her head right on the floor the second time. It turns out that she was diabetic and her suger levels were too low. I think that everyone thought she was loaded at first but afterwards, we found out what the real deal was. It was really weird though cause both times she fell, I was trying to help her up and I have never had anyone look at me like that before. It was such a blank stare - basically as if she was looking right past me and didn't even know I was there. Very strange feeling - that is for sure.

Friday night, I played volleyball after work for a couple of hours. A very fun sport and damn, the majority of girls that play that sport are VERY fit and hot. There were a tonne of people at the rec centre where I went just playing pick up and it was a lot of fun. After volleyball, I watched the movie Catch me if you Can starring Leonardo Dicaprio (whose career seems to be turning around again) and Tom Hanks. The movie was pretty good and entertaining for the most part. But, there were just a couple of scenes - like the whole applying for medical jobs part that were a little too much. Interesting concept for a movie though - I'd like to find out how much was really true.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to Chicago to visit my buddy from Waterloo Ravin. We had an awesome time just chilling in Chicago. I almost didn't go actually cause I was being so lazy all afternoon but in the end, I decided to go and I am glad I did. We went to the Funky Buddha Lounge and had an amazing time. The music was fantastic. The patrons, especially those of the opposite sex were great. I was shocked by the amount of brown people there actually - it's funnny but at times, it felt like I was at the Guvernment or Indian Motorcycle or something (because of some of the peeps there). Overall though, the place was great - the best part is that they have four guys who play live African drums while the DJ is spinning house, hip hop, reggae and old skool. It's pretty awesome to listen to the song and then here the drum beat going with it. Very neat sensation. And there is something about live music, and drums for that matter, but I was totally groovin' last night.

This morning - woke up at Ravin's place and his mom made fantastic Indian Chai for us and Uthapa...so good. All those masalas were totally reminding me of home and how much I miss my mommy's cooking. Speaking of cooking, I made some killer stuff yesterday before going to Chicago. I made chick pea dish (chole for you Marathis) and a stirfry with brocolli, mushrooms, yellow peppers and red onions. The trick to the stirfry however was that I started cooking it as an Indian dish with Indian spices and then part way through, changed my mind and made a Thai peanut, garlic, hot sauce for it. So in the end, it's an Indian-Thai fusion stirfry that turned out pretty good.

Last thing for the evening...did anyone catch the Simpsons tonight? Homer made fun of Indian food - it was pretty damn funny. Get ready for Joe Millionaire tomorrow night...
Good night all.

Hey guys,

Who watched Joe Millionaire last night? Man that was funny. Those gold-digging women are really gonna get it in the end...I would really like to see the end of that. Once again, FOX has come up with another winner. Pretty funny actually. The guy has got to be one of the worst actors though...they really gotta work on him. It's a parody of that hit the millionaire but I think that they'll get so many more viewers tuning in for this one. It'll be short (only a few episodes) but man, it's going to be funny.

Just watched Austin Powers in Goldmember - that had some funny movies. I'll say it again though - that opening scene has gotta be some of the best 5 minutes of moving watching ever. All the cameos are absolutely fantastic. Kevin Spacey and Dana Devito are defin

I just got some crappy news so I'm not in the best of moods. Hopefully things will change soon...
Good Night.

Hey all...I am watching the Simpsons right now and it's one of the funniest ones that I've seen in a while. Bart nominates Ms. Krabapul (his teacher) for teacher of the year and the entire family gets invited to Orlando for the awards ceremony. There were so many funny scenes and quotes - man, I haven't laughed that much in a long time. Here's just a taste (this will only be good for people who watched it - the rest of you probably won't really understand what these are refering to).

subheading in the newspaper: Closed pistachio stymies fatso
electric car that is talking once bart and homer get in (paraphrased): I’m an electric car. I drive slow and don’t go far. If you drive it, people will think you’re gay.
on sign outside awards ceremony: Tickets: Very Available
the winner of the teacher of the year: Julio Estudiante - who taught inner city kids that differential equations are more powerful than bullets.

Wow - this has been a very crazy weekend for NFL wildcard games. The two games yesterday were stinkers with the Jets killing the Colts 41 - 0 and the Falcon upsetting the Packers 24 - 7. Michael Vick was absolutely money at QB. I haven't seen a quarterback run that well ever before. I think that I messed up the chi in Wisconsin since I got here. The Packers were supposed to be wicked and all great but they have been playing like crap over the past month or so and Brett Farve was garbage yesterday. Then, there were today's games - The Steelers came back to beat the Browns in a thriller and the 49ers came back from 24 points down to beat the Giants in another great game. Man - the ending of that game was crazy. You gotta read about the end of that game (especially the part about Junkin, the snapper).

And, while you're at it - keep on reading about sports and check out this artticle about Keon's views on Vince. Man, I am glad that he said all this but I'm also not too glad that he said it cause that doesn't bode very well for the Raptors. They are playing like absolute crap right now (almost the worst team in the league) and are definitely not going to get any better any time soon. Whenever Vince comes back (if he decides to actually play hurt once in his life), we'll see what happens but to be honest, I am not that hopeful.

Last thing about sports I promise. (well for now anyway) Congrats to CANADA: 2003 World Junior Hockey Silver Medalists. The lost to Russia tonight 3 - 2 in another heart breaker, the second consecutive year gold medal loss against the Russians.

Switching gears, I just finished watching Outbreak. That was a great movie as well. And man, what a cast! Hoffman, Russo, Freeman, Sutherland, Spacey and Gooding Jr. You can't really get any better than that. And that opening scene...when they bomb the U.S. Army camp - wow that is pretty powerful. I love how they show the oubreak starting. The monkey starts in Zaire. Gets on the Korean Cargo Ship. Is snuck out of the cargo docks in Boston by some shipping boy trying to make an extra buck. He then tries to sell it to a pet store owner who has a customer that is looking for a monkey. The monkey bites the owner and spits on the boy. The owner doesn't want the monkey so he goes back to Boston with the boy. The boy doesn't know what to do with it so he releases it into the wild. He kisses his girlfriend when he gets off a plane. The lab technician in California who is testing the blood gets touched with the infected blood. They think he's okay and then he goes out with his girlfriend to the movies. He starts coughing and they show the germs spreading around the theatre. Slowly he falls and starts convulsing. Then everything goes crazy....The disease just spreads like wildfire and it's really cool to watch the movie unfold. Hope I didn't give anything away (although the movie is from 1995 so too bad if I did!)

So, what else have I done all weekend? A whole lot of resting and movie watching. It has been absolutely great. In the meantime, I have also managed to do laundry, organize my photos, eat soup, toast, oatmeal, tea and OJ for almost every meal, watch some football, sleep and oh yeah, I finally stepped outside this evening after about 2.5 days inside. Time to get ready for bed and finish up some work for tomrorow.

Good luck tomorrow Tchao. Kick some ass!

Sweet. The Canadian Juniors beat the US Juniors today in the semifinals of the World Junior Hockey Championships. Now - it's the golf medal game against Russia tomorrow. I sat at home all day today and I feel much better. Still two more days (Saturday and Sunday) to chill out and come Monday - I should be as good as new.

I was watching the Shawshank Redemption tonight. That is definitely one of my all time favourite movies. I think that I've blogged about this movie before but there is just something about it. It's commentary on life and how we struggle so much just to get no where is really interesting. Showing Morgan Freeman's Character and the older guy "Brooks" not being able to survive on the outside world was really interesting. Morgan Freeman just had an excellent quote..."40 years, I've been asking permission to piss. Now, I can't even squeeze a drop without getting the okay from someone." In prison, I guess you become so reformed to the way things are and you begin to accept it as is. Then there is the story of Tim Robbin's character "Andy Dufresne". He never actually commited the crime he was convicted two life sentences for but he did his time and did little things throughout his stay at Shawshank that made him feel like a man again. The friendship that Andy and Red developed during their time at Shawshank is remarkable - that is true trust and respect.

Some great quotes from the film...

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good things ever die.
Get busy living or get busy dying.

This afternoon, I also watched the Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring. That is another great movie. I really ain't into much of the fantasy movies but there is something about that movie that is absolutely great. It's got everything in it...suspense, love, drama, action ---> so much great stuff. I wanted to see the movie again before seeing the second one - The Twin Towers. Hopefully, I will see it this weekend or during the coming week.

Right now, Cliffhanger is on - that is a real old movie - I think I watched that a long time ago. Actually, Cliffhanger is the first Rated R movie that I ever snuck into. That is my memory of this movie. It's pretty good action but man Stallone is something else. Some day, I'll tell you about the really embarrasing story that happened to me when I tried to sneak into Pulp Fiction back in the day. I'll save that one for a rainy day.

Off to find some grub for dinner and then going to hit the sac.
Have a good evening all.

What's up with me always getting sick? I was sick for 3 weeks before the holidays, lost it in Europe and now have gotten sick again. I woke up on the 31st with a scratchy throat. It got better by this morning but sitting at work all day today - it just got progressively worse and worse. I left early and I've been home since about 3. I slept for about 4 hours. It's almost midnight now and I ain't tired so I'm not sure what to do. Jen suggested that I watch a bunch of movies and I think I am going to do that. The only thing is that I get pretty dizzy when I wear my glasses for a long time. Well, I think that I should get to bed now. I am just going to take it easy and rest and relax for the next couple of days. Thank god tomorrow is Friday!

Good NIght...

2003 is upon us. This new year brings with it a feeling of success and happiness. I can sense it now. This trip that I recently had with my family to Europe was definitely a very eye-opening couple of weeks. I think that it brought us closer together and going forward, it will be interesting how we all are. On the friends side, I look forward to renewing old friendships and further building existing ones. Living in Milwaukee makes me further away from everyone but it's still not far enough to be an excuse. By no means was 2002 a bad year for me. I got a great job, finished school on a high note, traveled to several countries around the world and even bought a car. All in all, I'ld say that it was pretty awesome. I definitely think though that the last couple of months were a lot harder than the first 10. That being said, I think that I am in a great position now to really kick ass in 2003. I blogged about a month ago saying that I really had to start raising my intensity level at work. I don't think that I have been that succesful as yet but that will change very quickly. I am very determined to succeed and I know what I have to do to get there.

2003 will be a special one. One thing I would love to find is someone special to share it with...

Good luck to you all and have a safe and personally rewarding year.