Meet the Corolla Brigade!

While this may sound unbelievable to some people (especially the

ones who belong to this club of people who are of the opinion that I am a

workaholic!), there are times in my life when I just become so lazy

that I prefer just laying down on the couch here in the office instead

of doing something even remotely more constructive than that! Anyway,

after doing this for two consecutive days, I finally managed to get my

conscience to berate me for this and get me to at least catch up on my

blog if not go about writing new code.

So a lot has been happening since I last posted in these parts so

perhaps a quick summary is in order. If most of it is Greek and Latin

to you, you can skip ahead I spent most of last week working

pretty hard on writing up a paper that we were sending to a journal

(IEE Proceedings – Software) and getting the Boeing OEP scenario to

integrate with FACET although the bulk of the work in the latter was

done by Pavan and Roopa who worked tirelessly and lost a lot of sleep

over it too. In the end, we did manage to come up with some pretty

encouraging numbers and it looks like (to me) our funding should be

pretty much intact

The paper was sent off on Monday evening and ever since I have

been in “vacation-in-the-office” mode I spent most of yesterday

backing up all data on my ThinkPad and then proceeding to knock

everything off it to install RedHat Linux 9.0 and Windows XP Pro. It

took me practically all day ! In the meantime, I also spent a

considerable length of time researching Dell laptops for Vidya who wants

to buy one soon. Since I myself will never buy anything but a ThinkPad

and since I just don’t have that kind of money right now, I

have to be content with helping others buy shiny, new Dell

laptops. My ThinkPad’s screen has begun to develop a

dark patch on the right side – I think it is time to call the IBM chaps

and get a replacement for the screen (thanks to the super-duper 3 year

warranty I have). That should be enough of a consolation – a shiny new

screen.

Ever since Ms. nOnda stopped writing her blog (she says that she

is much too busy with her parents in town !), I have had the

unofficial job of keeping the world up to date with all the happenings

in her life. So this week I bring you the story of the Corolla search!

For reasons that we shall not go into, nOnda decided

that like every good desi in the US, she wanted a “Japanese car

- a Corolla or a Civic.” So we began our search last week for the

perfect car by making our first trip to Ackerman Toyota with Vidya and

nOnda’s father in tow. Now, Vidya and I both own Corollas which means

that we are a little too familiar with the Corolla and its weaknesses

so no sooner did we take the 2003 Corolla for a spin than we began to

find every little “flaw.” Notwithstanding all that, the new Corolla LE

is indeed a really cool car with a lot more room and with all the

features that one might want in a car. It is no secret that Toyota’s

quality is worth dying for.

On Friday evening we checked out a Civic EX and shopped around

some more for the best Corolla price. I was quite impressed by the Lou

Fusz Toyota showroom where we also met nice salesmen who seemed

eminently more transparent in their dealings. We learnt about the

availability of 2004 Corolla LEs and about the general markup on the

prices of such cars. After thinking about it pretty hard, nOnda

finally bought the 2004 Corolla LE last evening at Lou Fusz for the

fabulous prize of 15,800 USD! And what’s more, Toyota gives you

special treatment if you are a college graduate with a job – Tier 1

credit rating treatment, excellent APR and an additional 400 USD off

the price of the car! So watch out for the Corolla brigade in town -

Vidya, Nonda and me!

In other news, it happened to be my birthday on Tuesday – I am now

23 years old. It was also the day on which nOnda took her driving test

for the third time and finally managed to pass with a 71! I told her

that I brought her luck or it would have been the driving school for

her next

So on Tuesday evening, I decided to be a good Hindu boy for a

change and make a trip to the ‘Hindu Temple of St. Louis’ on Weidman

Rd, off Manchester. Since most of my friends are currently in India,

it was just Vidya and me. Dinner was at Priyaa’s and the night ended

with watching ‘Matrix Reloaded’ at AMC.

Since everybody’s favourite bash topic nowadays seems to be this

movie, I thought I might add a bit to the already vast number of

opinions that exist. For one, the fight sequences are a joke – they

would put a Hindi movie to shame! In the sequence where Neo

fights a hundred Agent Smiths, you can actually see clearly that they

are computer generated images. Some of the new concepts that they

reveal about the Matrix are quite intriguing in their philosophical

connotations so it probably is worth seeing for that. And the

car chase sequence on the highway is pretty cool. So overall, I would

say, go watch it anyway and laugh at the parts you find ridiculous.

This Sunday I am off to San Diego for my maiden trip to the West

Coast! I am looking forward to the beaches, the babes, the conference

and catching up with a lot of dudes from my IIT days.