Blogs to follow

My Friend Madhu's amazing Blog

About Hyderabad by Madhu

A Weekend In NYC

A lovely weekend in NYC with family and friends!

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Piyali dances with Fire!
My sister performs for us with fire (this is only her second time doing it with actual fire. Please do not try this at home!)

Toni Sings
Toni Tone my sister's friend sings in the dark night, at my uncle's place in Long Island.

Besame Mucho in the Park
This was under my sister's favorite tree in central park.

Breast Feeding

Went over to my parents house this morning. The morning news was on. Topic: Politics and latest magazine covers!

So we have the Newsweek cover with our gay President Obama on it.

Mom: He's not gay, but even if he IS, so what!
Dad: They did a bad thing by doing this. Too far.
Me: That's just stupid.


George Takei - Congrats, Mr. Prez. Well earned. As Beyonce might say, "I can see your gaylo."- George Takei
 
I guess the ability to think of news agencies as something serious is an age long gone. I feel bad for people who want to be journalists.

Next magazine cover. Epic: Time Magazine's breast feeding

Controversial and stirring as it is! I think Times may have made record sales this week!

Mom: it's totally natural.
Me: What?
Dad: In some villages it's as good as Pepsi/Cola (shrugs)
Me: right. Free food!
Mom: There's nothing wrong with it, you can breast feed even when you are thirty.
Me: Ok out with it then! Give me your breasts!

No. It didn't happen, cause her body doesn't produce the hormones anymore.

Later this morning:
Me: there are some birds making a home in our building. I think it's a mommy bird and little babies.
Dad: Oh yeah! Maybe they are breast feeding!

:-O


Topic definitely trending. At least he's getting a kick out of it.


Management Meeting:
Dad: He is milking us of all our money through these payments. We must convince him to bring the prices down.
All: Indeed. Yes.
Dad: It's like he's sucking all the milk out.
:-/
Dad: Sorry I just thought I'd bring it up because of the Time magazine thing.
All: Oh yeah. Breast milk is supposed to be very healthy. It's as good as Pepsi in some villages. My mom was a wet nurse for 10 children, only 3 were her own...
 Me: Okay then!

Hopefully some of you got a few laughs out of it. SNL did a skit about this. This past SNL was really great. One of the best this season.

 Don't take news agencies and their articles seriously!

But you may take this seriously : Breathe!

Beds and Bugs

Beauty Sleep - so imleportant and for more than just beauty.

A good circadian cycle, sleeping 8 hours+, good back support, the right amount of softness... all add upto being healthy.

So I have been in search of the perfect bed.

In India and other countries mattresses aren't made of springs, and foam and this and that. Beds are different in countries. In Asia the beds are very very firm. I found that I wake up and feel refreshed. Over here the beds are plush and so hard to leave bed, but I also realized they suck at back support.

$ vs $$ vs $$$ vs $$$$ and warranties... quality... brand names

What a load of horse shit for a bed.

A good bed is at least $1500
The big three brands - Serta, Sealy and Simmons

3 months of research and the sales people still go on with the same bullshit

So usually they can bring down the price to like $700; this isn't like going to Wal-Mart; we can haggle.
Frame, delivery,  ... This seems like a major rip off and a scam or a great business to get into to get peoples money.

So reading online reviews, most people hate all the different beds, so it seems people on leave bad reviews of their mattresses online, or they all suck.

Two sided or one-sided mattress? The conspiracy continues. The original matress factory makes the only 2 sided mattresses. They are really bad because it gives in, in the middle.
Individual pocketed springs? Apparently better than the old type, but original mattress factory will disagree. And only Simmons has mastered the single pocketed springs, Sealy is new to the trade.

Every place we go they tell us a different story. The reviews tell us a totally different story about all models. So what is the truth.

I decided sleeping on the floor in my $200 sleeping bag is a better deal!

Nomophobia

Everyone has it.

Nomophobia - this new term that describes an affliction which ails most of us in this modern age of  the 2000s. "No Mobile Phobia" = Nomophobia - fear of being without your cell phone for a period of time being a few minutes, or an extended period of time due to whatever reason. It causes anxiety and stress in the person. It also might just be even needing the phone, having to check it not out of compulsion/fear/anxiety, but out of habit... 

Friend and you decide to meet. It's been a while. Say "Hi's" walk into restaurant sit down. Look at menu. Talk a bit. Silence. Order food. Talk some more. Then one of the phones buzzes or plays a quirky ring tone. The friend checks their phone. It's taking a minute. So you decide to take your phone out too, and then it become dinner, talking and texting.

Even if the phone was on vibrate, we have the urge to check our phones... maybe if you have kids, or are "On Call" at work, or a loved one is in the ICU. Those are good excuses. But it comes down to respect? Who do we respect more the person infront of us or the person on the other end of the cellphone-3G-Internet - ness (whatever)?

1- Addiction/Habit

My father thinks my sister and I text too often. He is a classic type A personality, Workaholic... so he's always checking his email on his laptop, or on his phone. He reprimands us when checking the phone while driving, or being distracted while driving, but when he drives, he allows himself to check his phone every now and then. So I pointed that out to him, but his excuse to me was he runs a business.

2- Priorities

So when we are with someone do we make them the priority or family who is texting or calling the priority? I think this is a major cultural change happening all over the world and worth thinking about. I dislike texting/emailing when with friends. I realize I disrespect them a lot. And I feel the same when it happened to me. So just like when in a movie, Please silence your cell phones and put them away. Even having it on vibrate is annoying.

3- Dependencies

So I was at a party and my friend forgot someone's name, so he quickly went on to the facebook party invite page on his phone to look up the person's name. What happened to using our God Given Brain and actually using it. Once again it comes down to respect and priority.

Even just simple things like you think you know the fact of a certain thing, and when in a discussion you realize you don't know your facts to the dot. So you look it up on your phone. That's plain laziness.
Do your homework.

4- Wired

Although we enjoy "freedoms" somehow staying connected ALL THE TIME, is a new type of freedom? How do we not get tired of knowing what everyone is doing all the time? Of everyone knowing what we are doing all the time and letting everyone know? I think one day we might realize this prison we created for ourselves and want to break free!

this is how we hang out!

let's stare into our cell phones on this romantic date

ofcourse there's the iphone... also - ibuddy!

 

Smart thing to do?

Anyway I googled "Texting Mania" and so much comes up!


http://www.stickmanweekly.com/Reader2007/reader4554.htm   ---> found this cute article!


Maybe we need a Facebook Rehab, Mobile Rehab and Internet Rehab?!?!?!?

Thoughts?




I know I need to wean  myself off of Facebook and my Smartphone... focus more on me.






Breathe!