cobwebs cobwebs on my blog !

I know its been ages since i updated my blog .. and i am sorry to say that the cobwebs wont be cleared until May 17th , 2006 as the maid has gone for a long break ! :D

Interesting !!!

It is not so uncommon to have an Apartment complex filled with Indians in the US . Most of the blocks close to the school would be occupied entirely by Desis
Primary reasons
1) Indians would stay in the lab most of the time and would like to make trips to the house for home food ;)
2) Until grad studies is done , atleast most of us cannot afford a car .

Well this is something that happened in Arizona State University as narrated by my friend.

There was an apt close to ASU which had only indians . Well it so happened that someone came and knocked on the doors of one of these apartments and asked for Bob Thompson and prompt came the reply from the desi " There are no foreigners in this apartment".. ooops that was quite a mistake :D

One classic Bharathiar song

Recently i listened to this piece by Bharathiar and sung by Sowmya ...

It was just a master piece . The song is about " The God of Death ( Kaala ) or Yemen " where Bharathiar for a change ridicules and makes fun of the Death God saying, he ( kaala ) has no powers and cites instances where he was defeated ...

kaalaa unai naan siru pullena mathikkiren;

enran kaalaruke vaadaa!

sarre unai mithikkiren-ada(kaalaa)

velaayutha viruthinai manathir pathikkiren-nalla vethaantha muraiththa njaaniyarthamaiyennith thuthikkiren-aathi moolaavenru kathariya yaanaiyaik kaakkave-ninran muthalaokku nernthathai maranthaayo? ketta moodane-ada(kaalaa) aalaalamundavanadi saranenra maarkkandan- thanathaavi kavarap poy nee patta paattinaiyarikuven-ingku naaraayananaaka nin munne uthikkiren-ada(kaalaa)

It pays to have a fruit ..

Apple . A company which i love for its products .. :)
Rather its like in "Forrest Gump" it made me invest in an apple company :D and i am a proud owner of an Apple ipod

A very good video clip about Steve Jobs Revival Strategy for Apple ...It pretty interesting when he accepts that they havent done a good job and apologizes abt the support group etc
Check out the new board .. Ellison has got a place ;)

See the video here ..

Just back from Whirlwind

I am back from my long trip to california .. Did 2500+ miles on road on a nice honda civic .. Drove a bit as well .. Would start updating my blogs from tomrw !

Fun filled Break ..

The winter break which would last for a month started with a lot of funfare for me .. Few of my classmates graduating , it started of with the graduation ceremony followed by King Kong show at one of the local cineplexes. The next day we started out to Houston to have funt he whole day . We went to the Meenakshi temple in Houston which was splendid.. Words cannot explain its beauty :) After spending some solid time and having a heavy maha prasad ;) at the temple we went to play Put Put . This lasted for another 3 hours and then we made our way to the mall which was beautifully decorated for christmas .. Moved on to Madras pavilion ( Houston branch ) for the graduation dinner :)
Menu
Cutlet
samosa
dosa
Uthapam
channa Batura
Naan
Paneer butter masala
kadai paneer
water melon juice
and not to forget the filter coffeee ..

Snaps from the trip below !!!

Ghee Roast from Pavilion - Austin , Texas 

ooooooooooooooh .... uthapam from madras pavilion - Austin, Texas 

The Stage set  

Coloues of wisdom 

There he comes ! 

The president giving a speech ! 

In the Q . 

Moments of True joy ..... 

Dancing with fun in the graduation ceremony :) 

Inside the temple !!!! 

Goddess Meenakshi 

Lord Shiva  

Lord Balaji  

the whole gang in the temple !!!! 

Meenakshi temple , Houston  

fatso me in front of the temple in Houston 

Distracting the master .. something that we were good at ! 

Moments of fun !!!!!! 

Playing Putt Putt with the whole gang ... Was loads of fun !!!

he he he .. Not in the Golf T though :) 

One amongst them :)) 

beauty - Four floors tall  

Reflections !!! 

The Galleria Mall at Houston !!! 

Altitudes when exams are nearing !!!!

----------------------------Stress Levels ( 10000 m)






















--------------------------------------- Ground level

Chilling out before gearing up !!!

Well now that i am done with all the presentations , submissions for the semester ( well almost , i still have one presentation on monday ) , i am looking forward for the break .. Before i become so lucky, i have three exams to finish :(

Today is going to be total chill out for me ..

Listen to this song three times already today :)) the song of the day :))

Hero by Enrique !!!!

let me be your hero
Would you dance If I asked you to dance?

Would you run And never look back?

Would you cry If you saw me cryin?

And would you save my soul, tonight?
Would you tremble

If I touched your lips?

Would you laugh?

Oh please tell me this.

Now would you die

For the one you love?

Hold me in your arms, tonight.

I can be your hero, baby. I can kiss away the pain. I will stand by you forever. You can take my breath away.

Would you swear

That you'll always be mine?

Would you lie?

Would you run and hide?

Am I in too deep?

Have I lost my mind?

I don't care... You're here tonight.
I can be your hero, baby.

I can kiss away the pain.

I will stand by you forever.

You can take my breath away.
Oh, I just wanna hold you.

I just wanna hold you.

ooh yah Am I in too deep?

Have I lost my mind?

Well, I don't care...

You're here tonight.

I can be your hero, baby. I can kiss away the pain. ooh yah I will stand by your forever. You can take my breath away.

BITS pilani goes southwards ... !!

I just hope it doesnt take a nose dive going southwards .....

Dr S Venkateswaran announces that BITS is going to have a new campus at Hyderabad .. Well i definitely am not for too many campuses . BITS has been so dear to many mostly because it has given a learning experience by being away from the city in the remotest place you can imagine for a campus and letting people be on their own ! The ride from delhi in rickety buses that can break your bones, the radi food which you would detest if you were in a city, food from places you cant imagine etc etc are just so typical of my alma matter .. The transformation of myself from a nerdie , shy , dependent girl to someone who can just be as independent as the Sun is fully attributed to BITS .. I love my alma matter ( big difference heh ? everyone likes their alma matter ) . Everyone has seen the difference in me and i have done it myself and I OWE HER for what i am ....

well a campus in the city would just spoil the very idea is my contention . Right or Wrong God knows but yes Better or Worse we can tell in a few years :)

Top 5 songs in my list !

My list is a collection of both carnatic and western as i am equally inclined to both !

For carnatic songs though i do have a singer associated for each song .

Brahmam Okate - Sudha Ragunathan

Neethaya ratha - Yesudass

Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins

Desert rose - sting

Graduation song - Vitamin C

Well the list is just toooo long but i have to break and give the ones in the top of the list. Actually my iPod would cry if it has a mouth as i listen to these sooooooooooo often !!!

Heavy heart !

A little girl ( 10 years old ) died of secondary lung infection at Diya , Hyderabad yesterday .. Contracting diseases for no fault of theirs has become so common for the new borns . I just hope they find a complete cure for AIDS atleast for these kids. It would free them of the depressing doses they take just to prolong their life .....

Grad studies and Thanks giving !!!

Graduate studies - what can i say about this ? All i can say is you would have a longgggggg weekend thinking you can have a nice break only to realise that this time is not sufficient to finish all your work and move ahead . Thats exactly my state now . I was thinking i am going to have great fun during thanks giving and i just figured that i have to make a few night outs to finish the pressentations and the assignments .. Its killing me . But the good thing is

I am going to San Marcos for shopping and then to Austin on black friday ! Well San Marcos happens to be the largest shopping center in Texas and the best place to shop during thanksgiving . With a number of my friends going to India i have a small list of things to buy for my pappa and mamma . Apart from this full day shopping spree with ten bitsians , i hope to see the Dell building at Austin where i would be working next semester !

On the whole i am sure it would be a great and refreshing weekend inspite of the work piling up on my to do list . Who said a to do list having more than 7 items is tough to achieve ? You should have a peek at mine . Its 15+ and the list still continous to grow with full nourishment from the ink in my pen !!

well i agree with this !!!

Unfortunately any NGO that u get associated with will have downsides and loads of negative remarks ... but see what really matters to people ..

this was the comment on my friend's( he works for Asha .. NGO ) blog

xxxx: sandip pandey is using ur money 2 finance naxalites & maoists..google it,know d truthd

my friend : I if u think thats tru why dont u use ur name,, also i dont work for anyone. I help the children I see myself. U think I havent read what u r talking abt.

my two cents on this

Well to me what really matters is as long as i see the money going that was collected or coming from chapters going directly to these organisations and i see the children happy and i know we are making a difference there is nothing to crib about .. There could be dirty hands everywhere but yes as long as u dont get urselves involved and see that u make progress in someones life , its worth it .. Well atleast i dotn crib about things and actually get to do some work instead of sayign this group is bad , that group is bad ....

A visit to any school funded would tell you stories on what an effort it takes to do such things :) and i bow to people who do such work !

jai hind ...

bhavani

Five movies which I like the most

.....in no specific order ;)

1) Cast Away
2) Road to Perdition
3) Father of the bride
4) Life is beautiful
5) Forrest Gump

but how can I miss something I relate to sooooooooooo much
This tops it all and it is special ..

“Kannathil muthamital “ ( she gave a peck on the cheek)

The Bull and me

thats the bull on the wall street .. i hope to work around this bulll ...

This was a gift for me from a friend of mine who came back from a trip to New York . Well for some reason i am obssessed with the bull in the Wall Street .

The statement that my friend made was a little funny though ..."The moment i saw this hanging i thought it would be the perfect gift for you" . Well actually if someone else hears this the only conclusion that they would have is "You are someone who fights like a bull " .. but yeah Not really though atleast let me say that ;)!!

yipeee i am freee !!!

i am free a day before i expected myself to be free .. reason .. :)

i finally told them that i am applying for internship only and spoke to the HR people ...
so got a reply ..

Dear Bhavani ,

We will be conducting interviews for full-time positions. Given that you will not be graduating until December 2006, I would recommend waiting until next year to interview with us. Your test results willstill remain valid. If you have any questions, please feel free to giveme a call at ....

i can go in for the third round of interviews directly next year !!! now that i am done .. i am kinda freee till thanks giving .. yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I hope to be much more regular and write some interesting things that i have not done for the last few months ..

why i am not updating my blog !!! :(

Interviews will take place at the Career Center at 209 Koldus, 2ndFloor, on Wednesday, November 16th. They will be a case interviewslasting approximately 45 minutes. Dress is business professional.

Third round with a good company .. The only funny part is that they are interviewing for full time .. and i am interviewing with them for internship without informing the same .. guess atleast in this round i can tell them my intention ;)

links of substance ! not mine- u guessed rt !

Incase u are interested in case challenges that can really drive your through follow this link .. They have an awsome blog with good audio blogs .
Dont forget to notice the number of Indians in the Winning team groups from the B-schools

Websites !

I have created a website for myself .. you can find it here !

and one for my boss sorry Prof here :)


suggestions welcome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


bhavani

Diwali in the US of A !!!

Well its my first diwali outside India :) and i am not sure whether i can say i had a great time or not ! It was my friends birthday as well so i went onto help with the cooking . Made some good CHanna masala for around 20 people .Then went on home to cook some nice desi sweets RAVA laddu and some bondas !

There was something in the air that all of us could feel . Any little thing that comes up , all we could think was " if only we were in India and at home , mom would have made this mom would have done that ... i would be doing this and that ! " .. Also we understood that nothign can be done about this apart from having little bit of fun we could have here .. Dinner was fun ! ten of us gathering for dinner and a tamil movie .. well a very old one but yes it really doesnt matter as far as we had company and our diwalis werent in solitude ....

There was something worth mentioning . Wherever you go , you would always find people to think of you and give you little shade ! My roomate's uncle and aunt had sent a hugeeeeeeeeee carton of sweets and savouries from chicago that would last for another week even we keep hogging....They had left a little note on it saying . Its your first diwali outside India and we want you and your roomates to feel at home ! We were moved with a sense of gratitude to the unknown faces who thought about us :)

Our Teams Logo which was appreciated by the judges :D

General Time Ledger : Period -> last one week !!!

Its well over a week since i updated my blog !

Well a number of things were happening over the last week .. Done with two tests in a good way, I started on preparing on the case for the CMIS case competition .

Me , srivathsan and Madan started sitting in the night from 10 pm into the night trying to find out the best solution for the case . Every night our technical discussions for the solutions would go until 3 am . For those who are interested in IT business case you could find the case here !! The case was drafted by Delloite consulting and Dell Inc.

Somewhere inbetween one of my TA colleagues informed me that there would be a math and data interpretation full test given by Capital One for recruitment . I decided that i would go for it jst for the fun of it, its been a very long time since i took one like this! What was in store for me ?!?! i made it to the next round!

Yeah On tuesday we decided that it was time for us to start preparing the proposal document ( Though this was not a part of the deliverables for the competition we believed that it would provide a better understanding of our solution to the judges ) . Well a night did all the trick . We were sitting in the group presentation room from 3.30 pm until the next morning 7 am working on this document which was a 25 page document. After some badly needed sleep we met again on wednesday and finished the doc at 8pm on wednesday. Then it was a race against time . We had to prepare the presentation slide for 20 mins. We finished our preparation with 30 slides of which 18 were mine translating to approx 12 mins of the 20 mins given !!! Well traditionally i have always been nervous and give little pauses owing to tension during my presentaions.I was jst hoping and praying that this shouldnt happen this time . We had put in a lot of our effort and time for this !

Thursday morning , I had a class after which we went for a second walk through of the presentation . We went to our presentation room at the Wehener building at 1.25 .. We had six judges and they were from Texas Instruments , Capgemini , SAS Global , Software Architect, Price WaterHouse Coopers, Teradata.For the first time in my life i gave a presentation that had no pause, fluently and with loads of confidence .As a matter of fact all of us did pretty well and we kind of knew we would make it to the next round .We were more than happy with our presentaion . But this was a knock out round . We had Phd guys , MBA guys contesting and the results would be known only in the night after dinner with these people. The dinner was basically a networking event and we utilised it to the maximum . I chatted with the recruiter from Teradata and Capgemini and they told me they would be back next semester and would like us to come by . End of the dinner the results were to be announced and i was tensed . Phewwwwwww atlast we made it to the final round . 25 teams were brought down to 8 teams ...We took our sheets where the judgets had given their comments. The judges had given very good comments for our presentation and had given a high score for it !
Another day of night out. the finals was on friday with the time for the presentation extended to 30 mins . We had to incorporate some minor changes in our presentation and add a few things so that we have material for 30 mins .. We had 2 hrs of sleep to catch up and there we were with our final presentaion . THe final round did not go the same way we expected . There were ten judges who were senior people from these companies . We had people from ExxonMobil and Anadarka Petroleum as well apart from the first round judges.

Fifteen minutes of Q and A session was grilling . Finally we were done ! We had to wait for around 2.5 hours for the results and the award ceremony ...

At 1pm we were in the lobby with all the company representatives, faculty and the students gathered. Well we made it ! we were in the third place , but we were happy that we were winners though the third place .. We had extremely strong contenders. The people who won the first and second were Phd in MIS ( 1st place ) and a combination of MBA and MS students ( 2nd place) . We got a scholarship from the CMIS and then two bags of presents from the various companies which included hand crafted exclusive pens , windjammer umbrellas,loads of leather stuff and organiser , calculators, gift vouchers, pens with light body , bouncing balls , cash cards worth $70 etc etc !! But more than everything it was a great experience .

With an exam on monday now i am back to slogging .

wehener lobby

Me in my home ground - room 156 wehener

Masters from the Bschool !

The SANS PAREIL TEAM !!!

Halloween Lamp

well what that means !!!

Hoshin Kanri

Ho- direction

Shin - needle

Kan - control

Ri - logic ..

or simply management by policy for the management world...

Hoshin kanri happens to be a Demings application of the Plan , Do , Check and Act ( PDCA) process .... Another complement to this -> Nichijo Kanri which is nothing but everyday management . To know more about this google it up as i am tired of using this word enuf for my operations management .. :)

Two tests back to back , two assignments , 200 papers to be corrected one case competition is all i have for the week .. phew .. and yeah u guessed my next sentence .. u might not see a post in the comign few days !!! ;)

This is does mean a lot to me ! will provide more info on this tomrw !!!
thats me

back from Heaven on Earth !!!

Well it was a fantastic weekend .. The most memorable birthday of my life .. Well i decided that i would expand my travelling and walking world beyond my university and decided to go to grand canyon when i was invited to Arizona State University by Garthik, my classmate from school ( who flew down from seattle) and Route , my undergrad classmate .. There on friday 7th oct 2005 i was out of college station .. My first trip in the US, i started out to houston airport to catch my flight to phoenix at 9 pm . Since i gained 2 hrs i reached phoenix at 9.40 pm .. There i was .. meeting my classmates from school and college after a very very long time :)

the next day , 7 of us set out to to sunset crater and grand canyon .. Since all of them were from Arizona State University they have been a to GC a couple of times and i was the only one who was goign for the first time ... Well i should say it was the most memorable trip of my life . A trip of my life on my birthday was something more than i could ask for .. :)

The photos below will explain about GC .. I was lucky that they took me to all the view points of the grand canyon and then got to see the Grand canyon movie at IMAX as well which was the climax of the trip .. The movie had some spectacular shots of some unreachable points of grand canyon ..
a trip which continued for more than 15 hrs into the night .. I was back to tempe at midnight . The next day was good . i had a tour of the Arizona State University campus and then went to the traditional Navarathiri Golu at phoenix in my friend's uncle's place ..

On the whole the most exciting trip of my life ...

As tall as ... ??? grand canyon !!!!
thats me

no thats not a volcano .. its jst one bit of the GC :)
thats me

looks like the almighty is trying his brush on the sky.....
thats me

me the odd man out from TAMU for the first time to GC.. All the ASU guys have been to the same place 6 times ..
thats me

no caption .. The picture explains everything
thats me

close up of the classmates ..........
thats me

heaven on earth
thats me

mission accomlished says Priya :)
thats me

coming up after trekking .. !
thats me

another shot of the breathtaking backdrop
thats me

The gang a second later ...
thats me

On the way to GrandView point for sunset .. The background colours are something that only nature's pallette can create !
thats me

the sunset on the canyon was the best thing i have ever seen in my life ... me and garthik !
thats me

Precarious position :)
thats me

onthe way while trekking
thats me

another close up !
thats me

route , garthik and me .. its a small world !
thats me

had to hold on .. else the wind would blow me away :))
thats me

breathtaking view .. gives a smile on my face ..
thats me

two cameras focussing .. but where do we focus our eyes ??!!!
thats me

thats me and priya :)
thats me

Image and shadow of me !!!!!!!
thats me

me alomost flying in the tip ..with the colorado river on the background ... a step that side i would tumble down :D
thats me

this is called beauty ....sans pareil ........
thats me

thats me in front of the tower ...
thats me

from the tower at desert view
thats me

words can never explain the beauty !
thats me

desert view again .. breath taking !
thats me

Desert View
thats me

At the entrance ................
thats me

from the lone star state to see the lone tree :)
thats me

the whole team - 1 overlooking the crater !
thats me

steep one
thats me

the heat took us on for a few minutes :(
thats me

which one do we take ???!!!!!!
thats me

knowing the crater ....
thats me

Trekking towards the crater ....
thats me

Exploring the trails !
thats me

Thats me on the Volcano trail in the sun set trail ....
thats me

havent understood why ?!

As i go out here one thing that i have always noticed is that i can see the american flag flying high even at midnite .. And i remember that you are supposed to lower the flag before 6 pm in India. Another thing . Having a flag in the house a big way is not an offence here .Well in India you can have a flag flying high in your house ! I have always wondered why we have the above two restrictions .... I always wanted to have a big indian flag at home .. and here i have done it in a small way .. thats my living room here :D

There is another reason why i get irritated with this condition .. If some really stupid , scandalous politician can sport a flag in a big way , why cant a law abiding citizen have it ?? :(

Do you see any reason ?????????????????

why not ?? :D
thats me

Who said so ???

Things i definitely miss are my group of friends at oracle with whom i had food everyday for the last 1.5 years .. friends for a lifetime ..

Who said friends from office are very professional and you cannot think about them outside office .. These 6 are certainly an exception .. Tonite as i sit in from of my comp thinking about a few people out here who jst say a hi and then continue with " i want this and that ! can u help me" ..Its surprising that sometimes indian people here say that they are being very frank and ask questions like "oh is it ?? u think u can do it heh !! ??? " " do you really do social service because you like to do it or there is any other hidden reason "......... .. i think everybody has their own set of guidelines to life maybe given by parents or absorbed from people who have a mission and vision to it in life . i say yeah lemme try ! and about the social sevice always a blunt answer comes from me ! i dont do things for any fringe benefits . i think i have been blessed with hands , legs , vision and maybe a little bit of brain and i think i can put them to use sometimes instead of whiling away time that i am most certain to do on a friday or saturday evening ! same complaints from a few others about the same people ! are we missing some pattern here ??

alll i could do was think about my buddies at office .....i really miss them ! Every outing with them .. A formal suit that i had to stitch for myself got in everyone to the Raymonds shop saying " i will select the colour for you " .. well the travel was 20 kms in auto ! taking me for shopping for my trip to US etc etc ..

everyday now that i have food alone at home or at subway ( jst because all of us are busy here and we cant really sync up our lunch or dinner times together) .. My roomtes here work much more than me since they do their masters in hard core engineering streams.. i am in front of the comp reading somethign or the other management , finance and doing some search for some unknown cases presentations etc etc ..... thats it !!! i think about the really good lunch sessions we used to have spanning 45 minutes .. Well as i was doing this my buddy pinged me and i almost cried to her saying i miss u guys for my lunch time atleast .. she really can pep my life .. here goes the related conversation !!!

buddy: chalo lets pretend that we are having lunch together rt now!

me : :)

buddy : my god what is this vegetable!!! some fried nonsense! are tehy trying to kill us?

buddy : and look at this roti it is made of maida

buddy: im going to only have curd rice

me: hey stop crying the food is not that bad also..

perfect re-enactment of my lunch sessions !

these are some of the typical conversations that we start off with .. then our topics would drift to which company pays more , which company has more social consciousness , where do you get the best Gol gappas in hyderabad, best books , are managers correct in doign somethings ?, discussions about some of the projects going on and the kids in the orphanages yeah the list goes on and on !!!!

Real friends would stand by you for what you do if it is correct and they would be there for you ever ! out of sight , out of mind doesnt work for these people :)

signing off at 2 am with thunderstorms outside almost a week after RITA has passed and case presentations, quiz and an interview call to go tomrw :)) ( jst posted my resume for internship and voila they have called me for fulltime interview .. thats what i say faux pas,i need to tell them rt now i cant take up anthing since i have my masters to complete ) :D

Tale of two neighbouring countries !!

Well everytime i pick up something off the shelf in a super market be it walmart or witco or some local chain in madras all i see is "made in china " .. Who said india is becoming a super power etc etc ????? captilising the human resource they have, is something have perfected upon ove the years and we still are struggling only to contain the numbers leave alone productivity from the numbers ( we are no less than them in population as well .. rather too much in such a small country ! ) .... I love India but i definitely dont see what could be done to change the situation .. all the discussions etc etc jst goes down the drain without any use ..

The numbers from morgan stanley would tell where we stand !

China ....................India
PER CAPITA GDP (2003 EST)
$1,100................... $555
PER CAPITA GDP IN PURCHASING POWER (2004 EST)
$5,600.................. $3,100
GDP GROWTH RATE (2005 EST)
9.3%...................... 6.8%
POPULATION (2005 EST)
1.3 bil .....................1.1 bil
EXPORTS (WORLDWIDE) (2004 EST)

$583.1 bil ..............$69.2 bil

blunder in the blender !!

A heat wave in texas forced me to make butter milk ...

Well it was time i read the label before i do something .. I really didnt care to read the label on the yoghurt when i bought it from the walmart super center .. and it continued here as well . I jst put a glass of yoghurt ,water and some salt in the blender and whipped it happily for quite sometime ..

With extreme happiness that i made something to cool myself from the heat i poured myself a big glass of "buttermilk " . The first sip gave me a shock as the taste was weird and puky !!

guess what i did ?? i had got sweet vanilla smoothie yoghurt and i tried making buttermilk from that with salt and jeera powder !!! I did check the sell by date but not the label which says what product it is !! fundoo me !!!!!!!!!! :D

it sure was a blunder in the blender !

PS : An oath i took that i will not waste food forced me to gulp it down anyways :((

my new possession ! a gift from my brother !
thats me

words to ponder !

WHEN U TRUELY CARE FOR SOMEONE YOU DON'T LOOK FOR FAULTS, YOU DON'T LOOK FOR ANSWERS, YOU DON'T LOOK FOR MISTAKES, INSTEAD YOU FIGHT THE MISTAKES, YOU ACCEPT THE FAULTS, AND YOU OVERLOOK THE EXCUSES.

read it somewhere dont know where though ! but i see that every word in it makes a lot of sense for everyone in this world .

mistakes beget knowledge .. dont they ?? or is it the other way around ! :-?

Rita makes life tough for us !

For once in my lifetime i dread a holiday during a weekday !Here comes the hurricane . We never expected anything of such an order ! Suddenly in two days things have changed . Local warnings , Holiday on friday , stay at home for three days , stack up food , water etc for the next one week, everythign closed for the next three days atleast, walmart and HEB are sweapt out ( nothign at all available .. i mean nothing ), no water even in shops , no gas .... . Houston is definitely going to be hit is what the news says . One million people evacuated from houston. It has become mandatory for the people from houston to evacuate . We are hosting a family from houston today . A normal ride from houston takes only 1.5 hrs but today it takes a minimum of 12 hrs today. The family had started out at 3am and they would be reaching college station by 6pm :(... Flight fares have gone sky rocketing . A flight from houston to seattle costs $600 today !!! College station is on the peripheral ..... But it is definitely a scary place rt now ! want to see the mails that have been flying around !

------>The storm is expected to produce highwinds and heavy rains. If that happens, electrical power from ourcommercial feeds could be adversely impacted. In short, our utilityplant would produce at half capacity, and service to some buildings maybe disconnected.
In preparation for potential problems, employees should do thefollowing prior to leaving campus today:
- Unplug or disconnect all electrical and electronic equipment, withthe exception of essential equipment or research equipment that cannotbe disconnected without serious damage to research projects.
- Remove items from basements to higher floors if those items would bedamaged by flooding.
- Place electronic equipment located on first floors on tables/desks ifpossible.
- Move electronic/electrical equipment and other valuables away fromwindows.
Students should be aware of the following:
- Off-campus students seeking shelter from the storm should go to ReedArena during the day Friday. Transit break bus service will beavailable until noon. Students are encouraged to bring sleeping bags,pillows and other essential items. Conditions will be spartan --probably an arena chair.
- Regular food services will be available tomorrow, closed on Saturdayand, depending on the impact of the storm, open on Sunday. In the eventthe Food Services Department is unable to operate at full capacitySunday, food and water will be delivered to all residence hall areasand University Apartments.
- Again, all bus service will end at noon Friday.
Hurricanes also spawn tornadoes. In the unlikely event a tornadodevelops on or near campus, students, faculty or staff should followthe standard tornado protection procedures below:
- Take immediate cover.
- Stay away from windows.
- Go to an interior hallway or room if possible and remain there untilthere are signs that the tornado has passed.

-------> You should assume there will be extremely strong winds and heavy rain throughout tomorrow night (Friday) and all day on Saturday. You can also expect the power to go out for a period of time during and after the storm, which could last up to a week or longer. This means no lights, telephone service, air conditioning, water, heat source for cooking, etc… It also means that stores, restaurants, gas stations, ATM machines, etc., will be out of power as well. Below is a list of items you should have on hand in preparation for a hurricane. The list was prepared by the Department of Homeland Security on campus. Take time before the storm to gather these necessary items, and concern yourself with the following tips as well:
· Fill your car’s gas tank, as well as small gas containers if you have them.
· If you have a yard or balcony, move anything that can be carried in strong winds inside.
· Fill your bathtub and other large and small containers with water, not only for drinking, but for bathing, flushing the toilet, and other daily activities. If you have a washing machine, you can also run a complete empty cycle, and then fill the machine again and stop it prior to the wash cycle.
· If you have animals, make sure you have water and supplies for them as well.
· Unplug computers, televisions, and other electronic equipment that may short out during a power surge.
· Roll towels and place them along the bottom of sliding doors to prevent strong winds from forcing rain into your house.
· During the storm, take shelter inside your house or apartment away from windows. If things get really rough, go to a small interior space such as a bathroom, and cover yourself with a mattress.
· During the storm, if things suddenly get quiet and still, do not be tempted to go outside and check things out. You could be in the “eye” of the storm, which means another strong period of wind and rain is coming right at you.
If any of you “experienced” hurricane survivors have any other tips to share, please do so with your fellow classmates. You could be saving their life, their property, and your friend!
Prepared by the TAMU Department of Homeland Security:
What is the LEAST you have to have to survive for 3 days?
Items that you need:
1. Medications
(enough to last 3 to 5 days)
copy of your prescription
2. Water
One gallon per person per day
3. Means of communication
List of numbers
Plan for keeping in touch
4. A First Aid Kit (enough to be able to change dressings at least twice)
Bandages
Wraps
burn ointment
antiseptic cream
bug spray
tweezers
scissors
and whatever else you think you might need
5. Cleanliness
antibacterial soap
handi-wipes
toilet paper for each person of the family
6. Tools
Screwdriver with changeable tips
Hammer
Saw
needlenose and regular pliers
a tool to give you the ability to break glass
work gloves
7. Lights and Radio
Flashlight
Batteries
AM/FM radio
8. Cash
enough to last up to 3-5 days
9. Food
canned food
a can opener
10. Important Documents
Identification
Insurance Policies
Bank/Credit Card Information
What other paperwork is important to you?

keeping my fingers crossed rt now !! phone calls hqve been pouring from

yesterday night !

thats the hurricane path!
thats me