January 23, 2005

There was a severe winter storm in New England today. Over 24 inches of snow over night, which meant mountains of snow, carved like sand dunes due to gusty winds blowing all morning long. I tried taking pictures of my favorite tree in the backyard of my neighbor but the wind drifting snow all over the place made it hard. I have always liked this tree and have captured pictures of it in all seasons. Then there is a purple bench in our back porch which looks beautiful with undisturbed white snow on it. It looks as if it is wearing a snow cap. Streets were fun too with kids playing in the snow. I think I am going to have a lot of fun with my upcoming baby in the snow. Television showed interview of a kid who glowed talking about school closure (yes that much snow), and getting more time to have fun in the snow.

Rest of the day was filled with football interspersed with a movie "September 11,2001" and a television serial "Desperate Housewives". Football was great as our local favorites Patriots won and are now on way to another Super Bowl championship. Bill Bellichick, the coach, continues to baffle the opposing quarterbacks (in this case Ben Rothelsberger, rookie QB with Steelers) with his superb defensive tactics. Hopefully we will have another championship this year. That will be wild as Red Sox won the baseball championship after breaking 86 years of curse (we traded Babe Ruth after winning it the last time to Yankees to become cursed). The movie is a must see for anyone interested in looking at how other cultures perceive America, its policies and the grave human tragedy on September 11. The movie is a compilation of 11 short films by renowned directors from 11 countries in 5 continents who had full freedom of expression (it continues to exist). A director from western Africa captures imagination of a few schoolgoing children who think they have seen the Osama in the neighborhood and want to capture him so the award America has announced on Osama's head will pay for Aids, malaria, education. The kids also dont want to give the prize to the elders who they think are all corrupt. Disturbingly, they are all fearful of American atom bombs if their country does something to annoy the Americans. Unlike Michael ...'s one sided, half truth documentary on the events preceding and following the tragedy, this one does justice to the tragedy and depicts the human side of it.

After a long while I explored eBay today for Camera's and Camcorders. One can find almost anything there. I watched a few auctions and participated in one unsuccessfully. The moment I would put my bid, it would be outbid instantaneously. I certainly found it fishy so I called a few friends who have had some experience with eBay. My experience turned out to be not so uncommon. Anyway I am still holding out my hopes for an auction due to close tomorrow.

A report from pew.org was out today on search engine usage by web users. It is interesting but makes very obvious observations. Appears as if web search has become synonymous with google. I hope this term does not make it to the dictionary.

Lastly, after procrastinating for the whole day, I gathered enough strength to write the employment verification letter for my green card processing. After a few years into this process, I understand a little bit why people would rather jump the fence, run into the desert or pack themselves up in a container to come into the country of the free. Legal process is too cumbersome and needs one to have thousands of dollars to pay in lawyer fees.

At the end of the day, I got the best news of the day. Offices are closed tomorrow due to inclement weather. Hurray! More eBaying and Googling tomorrow.