Super Bowl

I am not a big fan of football. But I make sure I watch super Bowl every year. This time I watched mostly for Colts and Tony Dungy. Even though I don’t watch football much, I have always been a secret fan of Colts. I don’t know why. I just like them. I wanted Colts to win yesterday and I am happy they did.

Another reason for watching super bowl is the Ads and half time shows. But this year I wasn’t worried too much about it because I know that even if I don’t see it that day, I can see it on 'Youtube' later. In fact some of Ad’s were already there even before it aired on TV I think.

Also did you know that this is the first time there were 2 African American coaches in the final? Even though it’s a game dominated by African American players on the field, it’s the first time 2 African American coaches have reached Super Bowl. In fact I was listening to NPR where they were discussing about how African American coaches were disregarded as management material at one point of time and how they had to struggle to get included in the management. So this is a huge win for that community.

Did you like the Super Bowl yesterday?

What is Curry Powder anyways?

We were watching food TV today since we had nothing better to do as we were stuck home in a winter blizzard. This is probably our favorite family channel. It always surprises me how they make it so interesting to watch. They also make it look so simple that it makes you want to try the entire dish at home. Also you get to know so many things about the food you eat through that channel. There are some things I have wished I didn’t know. Did you know that marshmallows have pig skin as one of its ingredients?

One thing that really bothers me and my wife is that whenever they show an Indian dish being cooked, they always add the same generic curry powder for every dish. I am not sure whether it's the same powder everytime, but they sure call it the same everytime. We use multitude of ingredients in Indian cooking and in most cooking shows everything boils down to just the generic curry powder.

I wish Indian cooking was as simple as just using the same generic curry powder for every dish. What is curry powder anyways?

Mail In Rebates

Mail in Rebates is probably one of the cleverest innovations by the retailers / manufacturers to improve sales. I guess this concept was developed based on the theory most people are fail to mail in the rebate.

There are various points of failure that I can see

1.Most people lose the receipt after buying. Some stores are courteous enough to give a duplicate receipt but most don’t.

2.Almost all mail in rebates need the product upc mailed along with the rebate. There has been at least one instance where I have thrown the box away after I opened it.

3.Only one per address. If you are greedy and buy two and send in mail in rebate for 2 you will actually get money only for one. So always read the fine print.

4.We have to mail it by certain date. Usually the date seems very far away that we postpone it and forget it.

5.Some times you can miss out a minute detail while filling the form and it can get rejected.

So if you are not careful, diligent and do not really pay attention to details, mail in rebate is not a good option for you.

But I do accept it is a win for the customer because of those really low prices you pay.

Helpers!

There are different kinds of helpers.

1. Some people help others with the hope that others will reciprocate when situation arises.

2. There are some who help with no expectations.

3. There are some who don’t help others and don’t take help from others.

4. There are some who help others but very shy to take help from others.

I think the first kind is most common in our society. Number 2 is very rare.

What kind of a helper are you?

Exercise - Pushing the limit

One thing that surprises me the most in this country is some people’s enthusiasm to jog or run even on dire conditions. I saw a person jogging in the street today while I was going to work and the temperature here is 15 degree Fahrenheit (- 10 degree Celsius). Don’t these people understand that it is actually bad to jog in such conditions? I think that some people are so obsessed with their body shape here that they would go to any limits to keep it that way.

One thing I have noticed in common with runners is that it becomes an obsession after a few months of regular running. I don’t know why that happens. But I have personally seen a lot of runners over exerting themselves and finally getting injured. They then give it all away and end up depressed.

I think it makes no sense to over do it especially if you are not a professional athlete. What do you think?