July Lessons

Here are some of the things I have learned this month:

1. Don't play "never have I ever" with brother's friends.
2. Flirting with Blue doesn't help me make it to first base. Although I do receive apologies for the "Strike!" ... or as they put it... "STRAAAAHHHH!"
3. Free cable doesn't always come 100% free.... :-X
4. A lot of Jettas take Diesel gas. I learned this lesson from a friend and am not speaking from experience. Really.
5. Dont ride to a wedding in a stretch hummer limo if it is 110 degrees outside, as it take ample time to cool such a large space.
6. Always keep a spare roll of duck tape with you for emergencies. Especially at weddings. Or a spare pair of shoes would do. Thanks Sindhura, for letting me borrow your shoes when mine broke 5 minutes before the ceremony started.
7. Roaches = free desert at Rock Bottom Brewery on Tryon St. in Charlotte.
8. Before you chuck someone into a pool fully clothed, ensure they have removed all wireless devices from their pocket.... oops...
9. Before you jump into a pool fully clothed, make sure you are not wearing a dress.
10. And finally... There really are guys out there who haven't even read my blog and have done everything in my "Scrubs" entry perfectly :)

Debugging...

And I wish I was referring to debugging my code. Ok that was really dorky, but yet by far better than anything with more than 4 legs. For some reason something one one zillionth the size of me can elicit the absolute worst horrifying bloody murder scream ever. My old roomate Rima is aware of this behaviour. She pretty much shares this fear with me as once we both came back to our apartment in Raleigh at about midnight, only to find the entrance to our door surrounded by about 3 grandaddys, a huge spider on our mop next to the door, and a 4 inch praying mantis chilling about a milimeter from the doorknob. yes. the doorknob. After about 20 min of pondering and throwing a few pebbles, we drove to the nearby gas station to buy raid. unfortunately it was like 6 bucks for a sample sized bottle so we opted to fill up our water bottles and throw water at the bugs. We eventually got in our aptartment.... eventually meaning about 1 hour and 45 min later. If Rima was not with me that night, I seriously would have driven back to my parents house in Greensboro. Hey at least thats only an hour and 15 away. So after living in bug-free LA, and then coming back to NC for winter, and then just being pretty damn lucky for the past few months, I was reminded last nightof just how badly I am afraid of creatures.

So I am about to hop into bed and I see this ugly ass thing on the top of my wall next to the ceiling. Imagine a roach's body with as many legs as a centipede but legs that are the size of those on a spider. Not a pretty sight. Especially not in my room. So i grab a broom, and some aerosal lysol spray (for the continuous-machine-gun-like weapon and get up on my stool and basically stare at the thing for about 5 min with the lysol fully aimed and ready to spray. I just can't bring myself to do it, as all the worst-case-scenarios start flashing through my mind. What if the thing gets scared and jumps on me, what if i hit it with the broom and it gets stuck to the bristles and runs towards me down the handle. I would scream and fall off the stool and my biggest worry about that? i would be on the same ground level as the bug. Not that I would break my neck or sprain my ankle. So I called my 1-800-SUPPORT friend Rob in Florida. He convinced me that the bug would not jump on me and a good strategy would be to spray then smack the bug with the broom and hold it there. So i put my phone on the dresser and started for about 2 min before i gatherd up the courage to spray and smack! In the second between the spray and smack, the bug tried to make a jump for it and i SCREAMED bloody murder and smacked. Poor Madeha. She came stumbling out of bed looking for sharp objects and thinking that I was being attacked. I was. Sort of. I WAS!! So congratulations to me for my first successful battle against the bug!

Strike 3!

So I added another activity to my list of things to do. I joined a softball team! First of all who knew it cost so much to play softball. The stupid glove cost like 60 bucks, and someone on our team bought a bat for $250!!!! i didn't even buy myself a softball since they were like 7 bucks a piece. Well, so my arm had to be twisted about 1080 degrees before I agreed to join. (I think they were short on girls). I asked if I could play the position of "catcher" since, well.... since I can't catch. I think the umpire hates me b/c the ball hits him about 60% of the time. However, I do make contact with the ball when I hit most of the time. I guess its fun still though because no one really expects anything from me, so when I don't catch, no one is surprised, and when I hit, everyone is surprised. lol. So far we are 0 for 2. But just wait till we play Ryan and Amish's team next week. muahahaha.

The Simple Life

Do you ever feel like you should star in a reality show? This weekend I went to NYC with Shama to visit Kaajal and other friends (Nakul, Tom, random friendsters (haha jk.... actually i'm not really kidding.... lol - kidding about not kidding - haha now you'll never know if i'm really kidding or not. but really i'm not kidding...jk)).
While in NYC we hit up the following places: La Souk, Cat Lounge, Park, Bar Room, and Libations. We also went to the famous Mamouns for falafels (or as I initially put it - fal-fa-lels).
Other simple mistakes of the trip:

1) shama scanning her metro card on the left side of the entrance and wondering why the gate isn't letting her through but in the meantime scanning half the money off her card.

2) me in times square, asking kaajal - "hey this place looks kinda interesting/familiar, is it anything?"

3) shama on Thursday before going to La Souk - "hey kaajal, do you think we should call a cab now?"

4) me and shama at Sbarros, each ordering one slice of cheese pizza and shama ordering a budweiser as well. we got to the register and the hispanic lady says "$7.89" and I say, oh its seperate. she says "yes, $7.89". and i say no mine is different. She says again "$7.89" and once again, hoping she just doesn't understand english, i meekly point at shama cheese slice and beer and say "for just that....?" [what happened to 1.99 cheese?!]

5) us getting VERY close to being hit by a car/cab driver at least three times and running back and forth in the road like those damn squirrels.

6) kaajal ordering a malibu rum and pineapple and a red apple martini.... ok fine now i'm just reaching.

lessons learned? definitely.

Scheduled & Recurring Transfers

So after almost a year at the Bank, I am finally actually seeing some results for what I did!!! It's not available to the general public till the end of May, but all the associates who worked on this initiative are now getting to make use of the functionality for what is called a "pilot" (i.e. lets test with our own money before we let it loose on the general public). Being that quite a bit of the code that calculates the logic of the transfer details (number of payments, payment amounts, transaction dates, editing transfers) was done by me, I made sure to write down all the amounts in my account because, well.... yeah. So for all those of you who use online banking with Bank of America, go to the "Transfer Funds" tab in mid-may and you will now have the option to schedule a future-dated transfer, or create a recurring transfer. And if you have any problems or see any defects, you know who you can contact for immediate support... that would be moi. Oh, and I would appreciate it if you would not attempt to break my code.... by doing crazy things like skipping a transaction 1000 times... because the max size on the skip field is 3... if you do this it will trigger a piece of code that will suck all the funds out of your account and send them directly to me. :-)

Cookie Dough

Something is terribly wrong with me. Not only am I updating my blog at 5:00 am (I just got off work at BAR and the time sprung forward an hour), but I am sitting here with a tub of cookie dough and a big spoon. So that whole eating right thing I mentioned in "402nd" place apparently isn't going over very well. I have some strange obsession with cookie dough. SAM's club sells huge tubs of it, already premade... dangerous. When we first moved in together, I got Madeha hooked on it also, and together, we finished 2 tubs of it in less than 2 months... definitely not good. I promised myself I wouldn't buy another tub of it, so why am I sitting here with a tub now? Damn coworker's-son's-boy-scout-troop. Popcorn is useless, and this was the only other thing worthwile on the menu. Somebody shoot me now.

The Importance of BAR

Apparently BAR has been given quite a bit of importance lately:

When casually asked what I do by my hairdresser, I respond that I work at Bank of America uptown and I'm also a bartender at BAR Charlotte on the side. She responds with "Oh, BAR Charlotte, wow, you must make good money there."

And online with my manager today in regards to a potential night shift helping out with transition:

Christine M. Wat... did you see my email about the CIS control room
Betsy Thekkeka... yeah, i don't have any known conflicts
Christine M. Wat... what about your work schedule at the bar?

Wow, I didn't realize my manager placed so much importance on my job at BAR!
Now only if my friends would follow suit....

The New Meaning of Double Fisting

What comes to mind when you think double fisting? Holding 2 beers? 2 drinks? something about fighting? None of the above is true anymore for me. Today on the elevator with Madeha, she demonstrated a new meaning for the term. Double fisting is when you have to cough so loud and hack so hard that you need TWO hands to cover your mouth. Please reference Madeha's blog for more clarification on this subject at http://madhee.blogspot.com/2005/03/thin-mints.html

I Don't Want No Scrub...

To all my guy friends out there.... this is an important read. I am writing this to HELP you all because I've realized that some people's mothers were apparently too busy watching soap operas to teach these important manners & since all of you are my friends, I want you to do well and succeed and always be spoken of positively. My girlfriends and I have had a number of conversations about this over the years about the guys we encounter and we have even contemplated writing a book because of all the stupidity and retardation. I'm going to start with a blog and just hit on a few high points... hopefully, this will be rather enlightening.

1A) Perception is worth more than a few bucks. A guy who pays for a girl is ALWAYS going to elicit a higher opinion from women than guys who have that "this is the millennium, girls want to be treated as equals, we should split the bill" persona. And no - before you even try to go there - it is not about anyone being a "gold digger" or us trying to get a free meal. It's about plain chivalry and the age-old tradition that the man should care for the woman. Does the man sleep on the arm of the woman? Absolutely not. That is just plain ridiculous for the same reasoning: the MAN should show care for and protect the woman, therefore HIS arm is around HER. So next time you have that "its ok if she pays because this is the year 2005" thought, remember that she is thinking "what a scrub, he doesn't really care, he is just using me, wait till all my friends hear about this." Now... is her AND all her friends thinking less of you worth a few bucks?

1B) What if she insists on splitting? Yes, it is true, the girl could REALLY be indifferent and would REALLY not think any worse of you if you let her split the bill. BUT - how much BETTER would she think of you if you refused and even abhorred the thought of letting her take the bill. I assure you, she would hold you in a much higher regard, and if your name ever came up in conversation with her female friends, you will ALWAYS be placed in a positive-he's-such-a-sweet-guy category. Is that worth the price of coffee or lunch to you? I think it’s priceless.

2) ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS walk behind the girl. It might seem like such a small, stupid, irrelevant detail but I will tell you this now. WE DO NOTICE THESE THINGS. WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT THESE THINGS. AND YOU DO GET CREDIT FOR THESE THINGS. It is just a well-mannered thing to do. It's easy, and it doesn't cost you a dime (for all those undercover scrubs out there who want to bitch about 1A and 1B). Don't argue. Just do it. Nike.

3) If you are walking next to a girl outside, YOU walk closest to the traffic. This way if someone is going to get run over or hit, it will be you. Not that we want you to die over us, but again, its just shows that the guy is the protector and he cares deeply about our well-being and safety. Some girls may not think about this, so if she looks at you strange for switching sides, just mumble, "oh don't want you to walk too close to the traffic" and change the subject so as not to appear to be fishing for an "awwww".

4) This one should be a no-brainer but I'm going to say it anyway. Open the door for her. Duh. That’s all I have to say.

5) When waiting for an elevator, let her walk in first, let her walk out first. If you are in the front of the elevator and it would make more sense for you to walk out first, I don't care. Stand to the side, hold your arm in front of the door so it doesn't close on her or anyone else, and let all the women out first. If you let the other men out also, you are impeccable. Its the little things guys, the little things.

6) When ordering food from a waitress, always let her order first. If the waitress looks at you for your order first, direct the attention to the woman. You think I'm making all this up, but all of my examples are coming from what other girls have told me about guys they meet that they were incredibly impressed with.

7) Speaking of food and restaurants, please coordinate your eating speed with ours. On average, men can scarf down food faster than women.... so please try to not make us feel like a pig or feel rushed by finishing like 5 minutes after you get your food.

8) Another important note: You may be surprised but we are NOT impressed by men who drive like maniacs. Please refrain from attempting to cause us coronary problems by weaving in and out of traffic at ungodly speeds. It just means you are not confident and you think you have to act all tough to make up for that lack of confidence. We recognize this. It's not cool. We are not in 11th grade. Please stop acting like it.

Ok, that is all I'm going to say for now. I'm sure as I encounter more scrubbish behavior, I'll think of more things to add to this list. Feel free to comment, argue, or agree. But I'm telling you... you do these little things, you will be WELL respected.

At the Hop

Studying at the library is SOOO last season. No food, no drinks, no talking and it closes at the peak of your study time. The new best place to study is IHOP. Its open late, and there is unlimited access to food and coffee. What could be more efficient? Plus there isn't a single place in charlotte open past 11pm where anyone can go to study. Hell, even the library closes at 6 here on weekends. So thats it. From now on, its IHOP. The only issue is having to plug in your laptop to the ceiling.... and well... thats really a nonissue. Check on the one on South Tryon by Walmart and ask for Ferman.

402nd Place

So this past Saturday I ran in a 5K race. A friend of mine asked me to run with their team, so I reluctanty agreed after he convinced me that I wouldn't come in last place. I had been running 3 miles a few times a week on a treadmill at our gym at Tyvola Centre but for the last month I haven't really had too much time to keep this up with my 2.5 jobs and real estate class. I wasn't too worried as all I really cared to do was run the 3.1 miles and be done with it, after all it was just a charity 5K. But wow, running outside is a whole-nother ball game. My legs are still sore 2 days later. I think I did ok though, considering. Check out my results:

http://www.runforyourlife.com/2005_RACES/uptown_ymca_corporate_cup_5k.htm

Yeah yeah, I placed 402, but out of 1271 people right! But somehow the people ranking hit the competitive bone in my body, and now I am all motivated to actually train, go get a gait analysis, proper shoes, and heaven forbid... I *might* even start eating right. If you want to race with me next time, lemme know!

the evolution of friendster

Wow.... friendster has come a loooong way.... online chatting, photo albums, displaying birthdays, and now they have joined the blogging bandwagon. last year at this time friendster took forever to load, always had random errors, and 40% of the time would end up in being a "page cannot be displayed". I was so annoyed by friendster at one point, I switched to Orkut (google's version). When that didn't really take off, I reluctantly came back. I did swear I wasn't going to do the whole blog thing (like with blogspot.com), but I've been bribed by friendster. I have to start one inorder to create a damn photo album. I guess we'll see how long this lasts... probably not too long as my roommate has much better writing skills and well, since our lives are pretty much aligned, her blog will more than cover everything that I do. check it out at http://www.madhee.blogspot.com/