It's official - Mission Coffee is the best cafe in the world. OK, in *my* world, to be fair. For every 10 coffees that you buy, you earn yourself one free drink. And I earned my extra-hot double cappuccino today. Yay!
But that's not why Mission Coffee is the best cafe in the world. It's a lovely place to work.
And what is it about cafes that makes me want to blog? Also, what is it about looming deadlines that makes me want to blog?
Reflections
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Symptoms of the holiday season!
Hello world! The holiday season has clearly inspired me to reenter Blogville :) I love the holiday season and the warmth it brings with it, despite the bitterly cold weather.
It all starts with the beautiful fall colors sometime before the Thanksgiving weekend. Streets lined with gorgeous flaming red trees. Grocery stores' shelves lined with fresh and canned cranberries, turkey, mashed potatoes, pies and other desserts, and of course the humongous vibrantly orange pumpkins. Increasing anticipation of the Thanksgiving long weekend and the warm parties and get-togethers it brings with it.
And then a sudden and crazy few windy days and nights when the wind blows so hard that trees are left bare, with no leaf spared :). And then just when it starts to get all depressing with the cold weather, the overcast skies and the bare trees, there are sudden little sprouts of cheer everywhere - Christmas decorations - the Christmas trees, wreaths on doors, bells and ribbons on windows in houses, shops, everywhere! And then there are the pretty lights to admire (which you can do more effectively if you haven't seen data on the Christmas lighting load of CA alone. Spoiler alert: ~3000 MW).
And then there's the music. Exiting a downtown San Francisco BART station to be greeted with music by street violinists, cello and saxophone artists filling the air. (Even) people going to work on a weekday morning wearing smiles on their faces. The look of anticipation on the faces of people, of the holidays when they would get to reunite and celebrate the festival season with their loved ones. Starbucks offering gingerbread latte, peppermint mocha, pumpkin spice latte and eggnog latte (although I'm not particularly fond of the latter two). Transformation of Starbucks cups from white to red-and-white :) Food, food everywhere! Dessert, dessert everywhere :)
And then topping it all off with new year celebrations. Strangers, shop owners, everyone wishing you a happy new year :)
And the grand finale, which I think is pretty comical: Enter a gym you visit often, on Jan 2. You won't find a single treadmill that's free. The effect of New Year resolutions, of course! :D
I really love the holiday cheer and warmth. It's a wonderful transformation of the world around you. And it gives a non-blogger a gentle nudge :)
Happy New Year, all of you! May this year bring you lots of love, growth and happiness!!
It all starts with the beautiful fall colors sometime before the Thanksgiving weekend. Streets lined with gorgeous flaming red trees. Grocery stores' shelves lined with fresh and canned cranberries, turkey, mashed potatoes, pies and other desserts, and of course the humongous vibrantly orange pumpkins. Increasing anticipation of the Thanksgiving long weekend and the warm parties and get-togethers it brings with it.
And then a sudden and crazy few windy days and nights when the wind blows so hard that trees are left bare, with no leaf spared :). And then just when it starts to get all depressing with the cold weather, the overcast skies and the bare trees, there are sudden little sprouts of cheer everywhere - Christmas decorations - the Christmas trees, wreaths on doors, bells and ribbons on windows in houses, shops, everywhere! And then there are the pretty lights to admire (which you can do more effectively if you haven't seen data on the Christmas lighting load of CA alone. Spoiler alert: ~3000 MW).
And then there's the music. Exiting a downtown San Francisco BART station to be greeted with music by street violinists, cello and saxophone artists filling the air. (Even) people going to work on a weekday morning wearing smiles on their faces. The look of anticipation on the faces of people, of the holidays when they would get to reunite and celebrate the festival season with their loved ones. Starbucks offering gingerbread latte, peppermint mocha, pumpkin spice latte and eggnog latte (although I'm not particularly fond of the latter two). Transformation of Starbucks cups from white to red-and-white :) Food, food everywhere! Dessert, dessert everywhere :)
And then topping it all off with new year celebrations. Strangers, shop owners, everyone wishing you a happy new year :)
And the grand finale, which I think is pretty comical: Enter a gym you visit often, on Jan 2. You won't find a single treadmill that's free. The effect of New Year resolutions, of course! :D
I really love the holiday cheer and warmth. It's a wonderful transformation of the world around you. And it gives a non-blogger a gentle nudge :)
Happy New Year, all of you! May this year bring you lots of love, growth and happiness!!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Starbucks surprise!
Starbucks surprised me this afternoon. I'm sitting here working away on my laptop listening to whatever music is being played... and I almost jumped out of my skin when a Carnatic piece started playing! I mean... really! A very nice one too, with beautiful soft violin and all. It felt so strange! This was followed by an English song which had some alaap in a male voice, Sarod accompaniments (!) and then a female voice with a quality and style much like Shobha Gurtu-ji's.
I'm done with my post, for I need to get up and find out what on EARTH that album was all about!
I'm done with my post, for I need to get up and find out what on EARTH that album was all about!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Bangaloring Woohoo!
Finally reached B'lore last evening... but feeling a bit sick :-\ Lovely to be home with mom, dad, sis and the darling niece, though :) Yet to see the others.
Am up so late, sniffles and all, only because I had to fill out some med insurance forms. And tomorrow it's the visa forms. I refuse to fill out any other kind of forms after tomorrow :D
And now it's time to go to bed, while my dear friends in the Bay Area are working hard (well, at least some of them :p). Good morning, y'all!
And Goodnight, B'lore! :)
Am up so late, sniffles and all, only because I had to fill out some med insurance forms. And tomorrow it's the visa forms. I refuse to fill out any other kind of forms after tomorrow :D
And now it's time to go to bed, while my dear friends in the Bay Area are working hard (well, at least some of them :p). Good morning, y'all!
And Goodnight, B'lore! :)
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Where is she?
That sister of mine?
I mean... If you reply to someone's email 10 days later, that response should have at least 10 words, no? But hers had six or something as ridiculous as that. And then she really vanishes into thin air after that. And then you hear from your mom that your sister told her that you got your visa. Duh!!
I mean... If you reply to someone's email 10 days later, that response should have at least 10 words, no? But hers had six or something as ridiculous as that. And then she really vanishes into thin air after that. And then you hear from your mom that your sister told her that you got your visa. Duh!!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
H1B approved
My H1B finally got approved. The USCIS picked on my organization, my application for auditing. All this after the application was submitted late.
I know this is usually considered good news and the words "H1B approved" are expected to be followed by dozens of exclamation marks, smiles and what-nots. But I'm not sure if I'm too happy, given that it means I'll have to start paying Social Security taxes now.
On a different note, doesn't H1B remind you of H1N1?
I know this is usually considered good news and the words "H1B approved" are expected to be followed by dozens of exclamation marks, smiles and what-nots. But I'm not sure if I'm too happy, given that it means I'll have to start paying Social Security taxes now.
On a different note, doesn't H1B remind you of H1N1?
Monday, March 30, 2009
standard typos
typos. there are some words that i, for the life of me can't type correctly on the first attempt. and what's more, the typo is the same every single time! here are a few of my words and their erroneous counterparts:
date - data
fremont - fremong
belmont - belmong
sunnyvale - sunnyvalue
poor - no points for guessing this one!
what are your typos?
date - data
fremont - fremong
belmont - belmong
sunnyvale - sunnyvalue
poor - no points for guessing this one!
what are your typos?
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