HOMP on TV

Sometimes, TV surprises you. You discover offbeat programs that give a different outlook from the regular fare. Not that I am against any soaps on TV. One of my recent favorites has been "Highway on My Plate." This TV series has been going from strength to strength episode after episode. Unlike other TV shows which have pretty anchors reading off scripts, thankfully you have two smart anchors who make sure that they keep you engaged with their goofy commentary on food they come across from various regions of India as they travel on the Indian highways (hence the name). I hope we have more of such programs.

Message in a Bottle

(Source: smh.com.au Photo: Sheryl Waideman)

I always have had this weird thought when I go to a seaside. That is, to send a message in a bottle. The only thing that stops me from doing this is, my lack of imagination to write a proper message. A message that I would be proud of before I cork it up in a bottle. The cynic in me takes over and laughs at my weirdness and lack of imagination. Creativity eludes me.

But the weirdness of the deed made me google about it. I am surprised to know that a message in a well-sealed bottle is well-preserved as the bottle can withstand a lot of things that would be thrown at it by the sea. In short, it is very seaworthy. I read somewhere that bottles keep bobbing for a long long time across continents for hundreds of years. Cool. And over these hundreds of years, several useful things have come out of sending messages in bottles. In fact, Benjamin Franklin used it for his work to trace ocean currents in the Atlantic!

The next time I'm going to a seaside or a riverside, I will be all set with a bottle and well-sealed message inside it. Till that time, let me think about the message. It sure sounds interesting.

From Shining Stars to Blackholes

(source: "Born Loser" from comics.yahoo.com)

Nowadays, no news seems to be good news. Its funny how things can change in such a short span of time. A few months ago, my co-workers were grumbling that they did not get a bonus despite their hard work. Everyone had grand plans to look forward to. With stars in their eyes, the sky was the limit. Now, they are thankful that they still have their job. No bonuses, no promotions but still people are happy to come to work. They are working harder than ever before. The boss no longer seems to be the bad guy or a slave-driver. What was good earlier is now bad and what was bad earlier now seems to be good. But the million-dollar (make that a multi-billion) question everyone's asking is, "where did all that money from the good times go?" I wish I knew. At least now I know the meaning of a blackhole. A not so great place which sucks up everything that comes in its path. Hope we can get out of its way in time.

Stay In and Be Green

I love plants. And that's the reason why I stay away from them. I can kill a plant just by looking at it. Plants and weeds alike. There is no discrimination. I can never water them right. Either I "underwater" them or "overwater" them. I don't know how to keep the garden pests away. And being a self-confessed greenie, I guess its a gift I can do without. So I try to stay away from flowerpots, bushes, woods, forests as much as possible. Let them live for some more time. They deserve it.

I just can't understand how some people get around with plants. For example, my Mom grows a variety of plants such as aloe vera, a rose bush, a flowering plant, a creeper and some other plants (whose names I don't know) in the small verandah we have. Which is the reason why the verandah is off limits for me. I can't stand out on a sunny day and take in the sun. Sigh! such is life. Staying indoors to save the outdoors.

But the fact remains that, no matter where you live, you can grow plants with very minimal effort. All it takes is a little ingenuity. A few flower pots, some broken or unused furniture, a little channel for water flow and èt voila! You can grow almost whatever you want even without a greenhouse. So I'm going to take up the challenge of growing orchids and bamboo. Or maybe I will take up ikebana. I hope I don't mess up. At least it is going to be something different from what I've been doing for a while.

I've been Bean Counting

Another bunch of assignments. Sometime back, I had enrolled myself into a financial management course (goes to prove that an idle mind's a devil's workshop). My intention was to know the stuff I don't know in finance that I ought to know. Or, at least know what I don't know about money. Which essentially means everything. Now I am stuck with a whole bunch of assignments that are due by 31st of Jan. I have been scratching my head, chewing on my pencil(s), fuming, googling and generally getting frustrated but these assignments still don't make any sense to me. Its been an uphill task working on them and it gets worse by the day. Financial ratio analysis, corporate finance, working capital management, athens, parthenon, kanakaredes, cryptos, mykros all sound the same to me. Yea, you guessed it, Greek. With a sprinkling of Latin. So instead of working on my assignments - after having another red bull and chewing on the last pencil I had - I am writing this post. Speaking of pencils, with all that chewing, I have now acquired a taste for graphite. I can now tell which pencil is a real connoisseur's delight and which one is Burger King's Big Whopper. But I still can't calculate how many pencils I need to chew on before I can successfully understand Break-Even analysis. Anyways, let me get back to my assignments. My cash flow statement problem seems to be showing that my cash flow is zero (maybe its due to this recession). So, let me correct it before I lose my net present value.

Before signing off here's a lame joke about an Investment Bank's Balance Sheet I picked up from somewhere in the dubyadubyadubya.

"There are two sides to an Investment Bank's balance sheet: the left side and the right side.
On the left side there is nothing right, and on the right side there is nothing left."

Cheers.

Ciao 2008

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/comics/)

Almost everyone I know feels relieved that the year 2008 has ended. The opinion across the board is the same. 2008 was like a roller-coaster ride that started on a very high note and ended with a stomach-churning steep fall, which sobered up many of us who were celebrating the good times. In my opinion, it was like having a morbid hangover after a great last night's party. Contrary to the year's first-half that brought a lot of cheer to everyone with each passing day, the second-half brought more and more grim news on a daily basis.

(Source: http://news.yahoo.com/comics/)

In a twisted way sort of way, 2008 taught us to be more careful, more economical and be more happy with less.

I wish that 2009 will be a lot better. For everyone. Happy New Year. Peace.