A Lost Kesh

This long Easter weekend P & I were in the beautiful Cotswolds region. As we were preparing to leave the hotel on day 2 of our trip, P was frantically looking for something all over the room. Then she asked me "Have you seen my comb?" to which I replied "Maybe it got lost in the Comb Mela".
That was my contribution to aid the search :)

Gone with the wind

If you live in London, you couldn't have possible escaped seeing those Big Black Bins labeled as "Big Black Bins" (duh! Thanks, Ken), specifically mean to collect recyclable waste. UK as a country is quite crazy about being green. I think it was taken to the extreme recently with the councils wanting to charge households by the amount of waste they generate and also penalize them if they dumped anything recyclable in the general rubbish. Prince Charles recently gave a recorded speech as a hologram in Abu Dhabi to reduce carbon footprint. The UK government has made a commitment to generate 10% of its energy demand from renewable sources such as wind energy by the end of 2010.
So, green is good is the general perception. Wind energy is good. Windfarms help generate electricity, and it's a reality. There are companies now that provide electricity via windfarms.
But, this has to be optimized with the age-old wise adage "Too much is too bad". Last week, 10000 homes in UK were left without electricty. Why? Rain and high winds!!! So, how high can the wind be without killing the electricity that it can provide? It probably makes a good PhD topic for multi-objective optimization.
I guess we humans are not very different from wind. Neither are stable when they are high.

To Be or BT?

Forget sky-diving, fire-fighting or rock-climbing. If you want a death-defying experience and test your will power, all that you have to do is call B.T. (your defacto telephone line provider in the UK) customer service. In every call, you gradually lose the will to live and if you hang up alive, then your will power has prevailed! You have effectively defied Lord Yama.

I have been asked "Have you switched on your computer today?" when I have called them about broadband issues. Am I supposed to say "I feel ashamed. I actually felt kinda lonely. You want to be my pal?"

The latest incident is blogworthy and happened last week. I called B.T. Moves & Switches department and told them I would like to move my telephone line to my new address but would like to disconnect my broadband service during the move. The rep tried to persuade me by offering 6 months free broadband and 6 months at the existing price plan (£19.99 per month) if I sign a 12 month contract per this offer. (You dont have to be good in math to figure out that this would effectively make it £9.99 per month). I wasn't enticed by the offer and told him I am firm in my decision to disconnect BT Broadband. Obviously, the system is not flexible enough for 1 person to carry out multiple functions. He can only do moves and transfers as-is with all services remaining the same. So, he transfers me to broadband customer service. I tell him about his colleague's offer since he asks. Now, this brilliant man tells me "What if I offered it to you for £14.99 for 1 year?". I asked him if its on top of his colleagues offer. He says "No. its instead of his offer".
Eureka moment!! Was it a trick question. I felt a little like Dr. Evil "Why pay £9.99 when I can pay £14.99. Hooohuuuhaa. Hoohoohaaa. Hoohuaaa".
So, my refusal to take up this revised offer led him to set up the disconnection. I wonder if I had taken up his offer, I would have been passed on to "We like you because you are dumb" department with a revised offer of £24.99 per month

My 2 pennies of advice to my ardent readers - get your cup of coffee, read up self-improvement books before you dial that 0800 800 150 number.

Big Brother Live - New Season

You may have grown up to the concept of a curtain-raiser to usher a new event, a new concert, a new movie, etc but in the age when the Archishop advocates Sharia law, if you haven't realized you live in a topsy-turvy world. So, as a fast learner, in order to kick-off the latest reality series, I have brought the curtains down. If you know where to mount your cameras, all that you need to do is hire the guy from Big Brother to provide a live commentary "P has now returned from work. A is on a conference call. P is very hungry and survived on a cous-cous salad all day. A decides to help P out in the kitchen and still attend the conference call...." and you have your own Big Brother, thanks to yours truly. Your time runs out on Wednesday evening, however when I collect the curtains back from the dry cleaners.

p.s: Not my best piece of work after a 4 month hiatus, but I finally got the better of inertia

Fw: Being Scott Adams

A completely random thought and a sudden urge to draw a cartoon prompted today's blog. I have not taken permission from Scott Adams for using his characters but I am not making any money out of this, he should be fine...I think..
Click below for a larger image

Hot or Sweet?

Last night, I suggested to P that we go to Rendezvous at Leicester Square to eat frozen yogurt. I knew she wouldn't be up for it as she hates crowded places. So, came the expected response "You like to hang out in all these crowded places, know?". I said "What do you like? To go hang out in the middle of a desert?" and P said "Yeah". I promptly quipped "I think we have a difference of opinion here. I say dessert and you say desert"

Q or C

I only recently noticed the British spelling of "Barbecue". It's well known that in the USA, Barbeque is shortened to BBQ. I wonder if its shortened to BBC here?