Inquisitive Soul

A Wednesday - review

2008-09-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

This in in continuation of my posts on movie reviews. Earlier I wrote a review on a Marathi film Valu and some Hollywoood movie reviews on Gung Ho and Journey to the center of Earth . Must see short Hindi movie covering a different perspective of past decade bomb blasts in India.
The movie is about an incident which happens on a Wednesday. The plot revolves around a common man who makes the entire police department run wih the help of a mobile phone.

Two powerful actors - Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah dominate the show.

The Times of India describes it as "it is an intelligent diatribe against terrorism"

I will not go into details of the movie here as that may spoil the thrill in the movie.

Movie lasts approximately 90-100 minutes with no "item numbers" or songs.

My recommendations:
Acting: A
Story: A
See in a theater: Not neccessary

Journey to the center of Earth - review

2008-08-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Brandon Fraser starts in this 3D sci-fi thriller, the journey for which starts on the surface of earth and then lands in an exciting new world at the crust of earth.

The unexplained disappearance of his brother lands Brandon Fraser in this journey to the center of a volcano. In there, along with his nephew and young Hannah they travel through unconquered territories and ride in roller coaster.

Effects of 3D are pretty cool at times with birds and water making their entry with a splash and a sound.

Some science effects and law of physics are applied at different stages to make it closer to a sci-fi.

Imagination its at it best to relate what goes on miles beneath our surface.

Hannah Asgeirsson is good at times but somehow the romance that blossoms miles beneath the surface of earth seemed little awkward.

Hindi guitar songs continued

2008-08-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

This is in continuation of my earlier post on hindi guitar posts . Latest update on guitar songs. Thanks to online video sharing particularly youtube.com and thanks to NikGp.

Lately I have been using youtube.com and indianguitartabs.com a lot for the same. I use youtube.com to play the guitarrred song on the background. Gives me a sense of what people are playing.

I have been concentrating on the bollywood tracks. Here the recent ones that have been lovely.
1.Kaisi paheli jindgaani from Parineeta .

2. Thanks to Nikgp who gave a fantastic guitar tutorial.
Maa Guitar chords from the movie : Taare Zameen Par
Mitwa guitar chords from the movie: Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna

Valu - the bull

2008-07-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

The village 'Kusavde' came to light with the launch of Valu. 'Valu' is a recent Marathi movie directed by Umesh Kulkarni.

The movie is definitely a watch for Marathi movie lovers. This movie gives a glimpse of rural Maharashtra movies starting from the chief of the village to its everyday people.

Valu, also called 'Durkya' is the main hero of the movie who has been a troublemaker for Kusavde.

Atul Kulkarni stars as forest officer. His acting has been good at places but sometimes the use of too much English in his Marathi vocabularly makes one thing is he really a government 'fauuurest' officer.

Some funny scenes of the movie include dialogues by Mohan Agashe stating that even donkeys of the town had participated in the battle of Panipat.

Typical village scenes where things move slowly have also been showed.

Whenever the camera focuses on 'Valu' the music producer has introduced a new tunes which sounds catchy.

Gung Ho - Review

2008-07-21T19:20:00.001-07:00

Within movies watched this week is the one suggested on NPR. This movie was suggested on NPR based on current weakening in the US auto industry and take over by the Japanese auto makers. What makes the Japanese autos superior to their US counterparts.

"Gung Ho" , the comedy movie takes you to a cultural clash between American automakers who have Japanese bosses.

One noticeable difference is that the Japanese have work higher up in their priority listthan family quite reverse to a typical American.

Another difference is 90% accuracy vs. a 100% accuracy.
Watch this movie to see who wins the battle of "family first or work first".

Michael Keaton plays Hunt Stevenson.

Plants update

2008-07-04T20:51:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately the marigold gave up the torturous Florida heat and shed all its flowers and its energy. We will replace it with some other one. Vinca might be suitable in Florida summer /rainy season.

How to grow Marigold, Vinca, Begonia and Red Kidney Beans

2008-05-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

Growing plants in Florida could be easy as well as challenging. We got few "how to grow" plants tips from family members.
Our first experiment with plants started with marigold and Red Kidney Beans.

The first layer in the shoveling process started with some white sand and a lot of white stones. Once we got past that we filled it with some top soil and manure mixture and then followed by healthy marigold plants.
Seeing our neighbors loose their marigolds due to inadequate watering we adopted the care taking approach of watering atleast twice a day.
Red Kidney beans (Rajma) were different. They started with soaking the beans in water for a day and using the oven to let it dry overnight and more and letting it sprout. We used some old pots and planted the Rajma's in them. No developments for the first few days other than some green sprouts. In a few days the Rajmas were up and growing.

Since these grow as creepers we need to think where we can grow them.

Last week we then planted some Vinca and Begonia. The process continues. I will post pictures to note the progress.

Tools used , courtesy www.walmart.com
Digg this

Garbage disposal repair

2008-03-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

Last week while trying to drain something from our kitchen sink our garbage disposal gave up on us. Turning the switch ON and OFF created a humming sound of a motor that was trying its best to start but did not have the energy.
A garbage disposal is nothing but a blender. Our garbage disposal is a Whirlaway by Sinkmaster which my guess is might be around 10 years old. Googled on garbage disposal repair, garbage disposal problems lead me to many sites both in google videos which demo'd how to repair the disposal as well as online forums on which successful handymen were giving their suggestions. First few things to check on a garbage disposal problem (thanks to this link.

1. Can you hear the motor spinning ? If yes go to step 2, if not try to reset the typically RED reset button which is located either on the bottom or on in some cases on the side of the disposal. IF that does not work then the fuse is blown off or there is some electrical problem.
2. Motor is trying to spin but something is jammed. Please switch off power supply at this point. With the motor switched off try to see if there is anything visibly jammed in the blades (that is the first thing you will notice when viewed from the top). Typically one might see spoons, forks or bones when viewed from the top. There are generally two small holes along the circumference at 12 o clock and 6 o clock. I tried to use the wrench to make the blade turn. No luck in that.

With modern garbage disposals one can use a wrench and turn the blades in different directions to loosen them. This small hole is found at the bottom of the garbage disposal.
Unfortunately my garbage disposal did not have the small hole at the bottom and hence I had to try different things. A wooden broom handle came to my rescue. i used the broom handle from the top of the sink to make the blades turn in all direction.
Finally I could get the blades running and then I had cold water running in it and used it to turn the blades and I liked the sound when I switched my garbage disposal switch to ON position.

Googling for garbage disposal care yielded this product
Do not let food sit on the garbage disposal for long and use cold water.

Caution: Please turn off power supply while doing any activity/repair on the garbage disposal.

Kids videos , new videos added

2008-02-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

New videos are now added. The buffalo and field mouse and donkey and the wooden image are now added to 3smartmonkeys .

The donkey and wooden talks about the morale "know where your limits are" and the buffalo and field mouse teaches the morale "greedy and egoistic person does not get anything at the end".

child development Video website

2008-02-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder how Web 2.0 or video sharing can be brought even to babies or small kids?
3 smart monkeys is the answer. If you wonder what it is all about, we hope to get all of you back down the memory lane, as we grew up listening to tales of Panchatantra, Aesop's etc - more so from our grandparents. Unfortunately, with most of our generation no longer being geographically in the same continent as our parents do, our kids will be missing the experience with which we grew up. This website is a humble yet enthusiastic attempt to bridge the gap. .
Any suggestions regarding increasing viewership with a view to generating revenue are most appreciated.

Three smart monkeys wish you all a happy new year !.
The current website has stories in Marathi, Hindi, English and Japanese

Work visa problems

2008-01-22T19:28:00.001-08:00

Over the last few years immigration or visa is a hot topic in the US and getting a work visa or H1b has become increasingly difficult

With the H1B cap reduced to 65000 for the past few years, along with additional 20000 for international students having a degree in the US.

The problem five years ago was getting a job and of course one with H1B sponsorship after a successful completion of graduate school.
Now the problem does not end there. Students normally have a employment authorization document(EAD) to work for a year after their degrees. What after that?

Now an H1b is based on lottery program as the number of applications increase every year much beyond the 65000 cap .

How has this affected studends graduating and starting on a job?
1. How long do they sign the apartment lease? Until their EAD or hope that they are lucky that they scrape through the H1b lottery system
2. Should they invest in a car? Who knows they might have to sell it off as soon as their EAD expires.

Life has certainly become more difficult for international students after graduation..

Tata Nano ! A revolution

2008-01-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

Also known as a $2500 car in the US, this car has really grown famous in the last few months. Why $2500 . This translates to 100, 000 Indian Rupees also known as 1 lakh Rupees.
Some quick finds.

Photo: Courtesy Wiki at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano

Great car with
1) 2 cylinder engine.
2) great mileage ~ 45 mpg.
3) Seats four.

What you do not get
1) Trunk or boot
2) Power steering.

This car will not be available till year end in India. I do not think TATA has plans to export it yet. Though I believe this might be a hit outside as well.

TATA might have used the Apple way of advertising. Demo the product 6-8 months before launch and create a big hype for it.. Probably this one is worth it.
Go TATA !

Based on some articles I read I heard that the emission control is better than a motorcycle.
However, does this concept car bring with a lot of traffic with it?

Drawing in 10 mins ?

2008-01-11T17:45:00.002-08:00

As a child the most difficult thing for me was to draw a human being: Especially the eyes, the mouth and the face attached to it.
The other day I tried to draw a pair of eyes and I quickly searched into google for
"how to draw eyes", "how to draw human".
I was amazed at how technology has made it easier to do this compared to a decade back when this was much more difficult. A lot of people have actually put up videos on google demo'ing how to draw !
There is certainly some amount of geometry and mathematics involved in the same. Rule of them for the eyes is that the distance between the eyes is almost the same as one eye.
If one wants to draw the frontal view of a human face then first thing to draw is
1) A Circle, well an Oval really.
2) Divide the circle into 2 parts. Eyes lie at the center
3) Divide the bottom half into two and you will draw the mouth/lips just below and above the same.
Shading and proper grip of the pencil is quite important for the same.
More details can be found in google videos....

Harold and Kumar

2007-12-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

After the exciting ride to the White Castle in 2004, Patel( or Kalpen Modi) and Lee are back on scene.
Latest upcoming is their "Harold and Kumar 2" or "Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo bay".
What originally was a plain 8 hr flight to Amsterdam turns out to be quite an excitement as the journey turns out to be much much longer.

More when this comes out early next year.

Details are here

Part 1 was a long night journey to White Castle to have burgers, which was a craving from an advertisement.

Hindi songs

2007-12-27T21:07:00.000-08:00

Every so often some Bollywood song catches my attention. Personal Hits of the last few weeks:

Movie: Khoya Khoya Chaand (2007) - Songs

Khoya Khoya Chaand and Yeh Nigayein

The tune and speed of the song is slow and remind me of Parineeta songs.

Movie: Jab We Met

Song: Ye Ishq Hain.

More to be added....

South Florida dining

2007-12-21T12:47:00.001-08:00

Over the last few days I have been trying to get a list of recommended restaurants from friends living in South Florida. I've got a few to get started. I will soon add more restaurants and also organize the data.

To get started here it is :

Social networking for an ideal match?

2007-12-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

Social networking has become a buzz word these days with number of providers and users increasing every minute. To give a few examples facebook.com mainly consist of teenagers in the US from the age of 17-23 and orkut.com from Google has attracted crowds from South America and India.

Arranged marriage is still one of the most common ways of getting engaged for Indians and for Indians abroad its a challenge to find the perfect match thousands of miles away. Over the last few years Indian matrimony websites like bharatmatrimony.com or shaadi.com have flourished.

Through their paid services one can get introduced to a potential match and then start a conversation. Often times when its difficult to find information about the other person its quite likely that the other person is a member on orkut for example. Sometimes it might take you for a surprise that the other person might be connected to you via a friend of yours. Then its the feel good factor then that the person your getting introduced to is not a complete stranger.

Orkut offers something called Testimonials which could play an important part here to find out what others think about the person.

Toolbar confusion

2007-12-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Over the recent years the number of companies trying to promote toolbars through which users can enter content to search or navigate has grown exponentially. As seen in the picture I already have 2 toolbars from Google and Yahoo. What this has done is caused the main URL window to lose focus. I will not be surprised for an average non computer savvy user getting frustrated on " Where do I enter the damn web site address?" !

Many of these toolbars look similar and sometimes we get misled by the toolbar. Eg. Google and Yahoo are very similar.
A search on google for "web browser toolbars" yielded tons of toolbars that are available thesedays.
Many of these have come under security vulnerabilities that have become an issue ! Try searching for "toolbar vulnerabilities" and you'll see quite a few.
As pop up blockers have thrived in the past few years I 've noticed the number of pop-ups severely reduced. Will there be a toolbar blocker?

Guitar songs 101

2007-12-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Playing or learning to play the guitar I should the say can be quite frustrating. Getting the chords right and then moving to the next chord while seems a mile away could be quite daunting.
Therez light at the end of the tunnel though. The feeling of playing to the rhythm gives a good feeling.

Lately I have been using youtube.com and indianguitartabs.com a lot for the same. I use youtube.com to play the guitarrred song on the background. Gives me a sense of what people are playing.

I have been concentrating on the bollywood tracks. Here the recent ones that have been lovely.
1. Aashayein from Iqbal - wonderful songs http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1736684410303739697&q=aashayein&total=16&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

chords can be found at http://www.mysongbooksite.com/song.php?songid=134&PHPSESSID=f7230c971b7cf6255561d88b39a7571f
I like the song when it moves to this verse :
ud ja[D]ye leke [A]khushiapne [Dsus2]sang tujhko va[Asus2]haan

2. Aap jaise koee: Chords found here : http://www.xs4all.nl/~abhulai/chords/chordsdoc/chordsdoc43.html

Intro guitar is here: http://www.indianguitartabs.com/showthread.php?p=3144

3. Yeh Zameen gaa rahee hain:

http://www.indianguitartabs.com/showpost.php?p=136601&postcount=1

4. Lucky Ali songs http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/www.ultimate-guitar.com/print.php?what=tab&id=412600

Beauty of Bryce Canyon, Utah

2007-12-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

Over the last summer I had a chance to visit Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah. This park is not one of the most famous ones but a definitely recommended one for one who appreciates beauty.

Located at a height of approximately 8500 ft above sea level this naturally formed wonder can be noted differently by a different pair of eyes.

At a first glance this one reminded me of the movie IRobot where there were approximately 1000s of IRobots standing next to each other.

To my wife it was like a skyline of a big metro like NY City.

To the rest of the world these structures were known as "hoodoos". The formation essentially was a result of rain water and even ice over limestone. Most of the geography in the area from the Grand Canyon to north in Utah is formed by water running over stone.

In the Grand Canyon its the Colorado river cutting through the rocks!

Hiking at the Bryce Canyon was a different experience. It was a steep accent right into the Canyon with the zigzagged road elevating all the way to the bottom of the Canyon. As we reached at the bottom we found that the road was closed as a rock had collapsed blocking off all the traffic. We noticed the mercury rising as we dugg our way into the white sandy/limestoned zigzag route.

Climbing up was not all that bad as we had expected.

The beauty of the amphitheater in Bryce cannot be described by words and only memory captured by our pair of eyes was the closest.

Here is one view captured by our man made eyes. :)

Use Google maps for your convenience

2007-12-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

I always wanted online maps to help me show me maps from point A to point B. Well it does today if you know the addresses. What if you knew a point in the map but didn't know the exact postal address of the map. I used to get blocked by this feature not been available in online maps.

Recently I did visit maps.google.com and find that I can right click on an intersection and click "Directions from here".

Then I go to the destination and right click "Directions to here". get the default "fastest" route on this one as expected. As you can tell its 3.7 miles and takes 8 minutes.

Next thing that comes to my mind .. Military Trail is a faster route ( I think) and I want to stop by a grocery store to pick up something. Let me check what google maps thinks of this.

Google maps thinks it will take 0.2 miles and a minute longer. Essentially what I have done here is added the intersection of Lake Ida Road and Military trail as an destination in my route. Likewise we can change to different routes by adding destinations /stops in between to find times for alternate routes that we use to go to the destination.

I found this a good feature and I use it for long distances where I know I have different choices to go from point A to point B.

What do you think?

Broccoli soup for the soul !

2007-12-01T07:47:00.000-08:00

A simple soup thats really good for you and takes less time to cook.

Ingredients
Broccoli - 1 cup of florets
Milk - 2% half a cup
Salt - a few pinches
Black pepper to taste

1. Boil the broccoli in little water(till broccoli is submerged in water halfway) till it gets very soft and almost dissolves in water.
2. Add the same to a blender along with the water. Leave a little bit to the side for some decoration.
3. If you'd like add some milk slowly and then grind the mixture.
4. Add some salt and black pepper (to taste).
5. Blend in again.

Pour in a soup bowl and decorate with the left over broccoli.

Serves 1 - 2

Mother of all Web 2.0 sites

2007-11-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

I started blogging again a few days ago and was looking at all different things or so called 'kits' required to make your site up to date. I had to search or dig(g) through different sites to come up with ideas on how to make your site more viewable. Digg it, del.icio.us are some of the buzzwords that I grasped recently.
After reviewing them slowly, I have now started to adapt to them. Some of the things I've been observing is that all sites required a login with a profile. Could there be just ONE site that will take care of everything for me. I'm tired of creating profiles over and over again !
What we want is a mother of all Web 2.0 components ! Please share your opinions

Paper cards ??

2007-11-26T19:40:00.000-08:00

Paper , recycled paper or hybrid? Recently we've seen everyone taking up recycling seriously. A few weeks back I walked to the Publix - a closeby grocery store and I was asked " Paper or plastic"?

World started off with paper and then human beings found that paper meant killing trees and now we are back to paper since plastic has its flaws. The claim - newly made paper is made of old paper ! WiKI has some links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_recycling

So next time you're at a grocery store ask for paper !

What are other things made of plastic ? Credit cards. I wonder how much plastic can be saved by moving from plastic to paper (???) cards?
Are credit card companies looking for a change .... yet?

Check scan at Bank Of America ATM

2007-11-26T19:22:00.000-08:00

As I pulled into the Bank Of America ATM this evening I was amazed at their new ATM technology. I did not have to put my check in an envelope. Thats actually a double bonus for me as most of the time I forget my pen somewhere and gives me a sense of frustration.
The nice thing about the check scan is it shows you the check scanned and amazingly the check value gets put in automatically in the value amount.
This might have been out for a while but not at my other bank - Wachovia. Others out there - therez definitely a lot of innovation still yet to come !
As always keep thinking and be inquisitive.