Good news

Two VERY good news items for today (like a "yay!" Friday):

• I wrote a while back about my friend that is running in a very special marathon. She reached her goal of $5,000. Now she's upped the ante, continue to be generous and join the community, donate!
• Vinay, who has been profiled on numerous Web sites, blogs, and if you are from the Bay Area and reading this, you should have attended at least one of the drives in his honor, has news. He found a match. Yes, you read that right, a match.

I'm so happy for both of the individuals and what that means for the community. How we all had to get together, for two separate causes, and how far both causes have come is amazing.

It's a good day.

And something so cute...

Puppy Whistle - video powered by Metacafe

Harry Potter Friday

Harry Potter has taken over my Friday. I can't work... all I can do is think about how the book I pre-ordered is sitting in San Ramon (oh, believe me, I tracked that sucker) and it won't be delivered till TOMORROW!!! Grr...

So, I'm going to the Harry Potter party tonight at Border's near my apartment. I think. I'm a HUGE fan, but not really sure how well I will do that late at night, after a long week at work, and entirely too long of a month of weddings and other family events. I'll try though.

Things that have been happening to and around me because of Mr. Potter:

• My supervisor and I will talk about it, but only talk about how much we can't talk about it and how we don't want to know anything.
  
• I've been avoiding the NYTimes, WSJ.com, and any other Web sites that dared to put up reviews and articles that are GIVING AWAY THE ENDING... who does that?!


• My friend who will remain nameless (but his nickname rhymes with "Ash") sent me a supposedly leaked copy... I stupidly opened it and started looking around, then realized what it was and closed it immediately. I'm going to assume he was being eager when doing that, so all is forgiven and we are still speaking.

Ah, Harry... he has been with me as I grew up from a college drunkard to a working, suburbanite. It's been fun. Looking forward to this last adventure.

How excited are YOU?!

Harry Potter in India

Happy Birthday Ma!

Wishing the very best to my favorite lady in the whole world! Thank you, for being you.

Movie Review

I saw Transformers last night. Wow. That movie was fantastic. I read the NYTimes review yesterday and was a bit scared. I imagined this overly testosterone filled movie with robots, lots of crashing around and cliched lines from the characters. Instead, I saw a movie that was overly-testosterone filled, full of robots, crashing around, and tons of cliched lines. But it was fantastic!

Review for the boys:

2 hot girls - Megan Fox and this other chick that speaks with an accent. A hot blonde and a hot brunette, both in fairly tight clothing that breathe heavy at all the right times.

2 badasses in Josh Duhamel and Tyrese - army guys, guns, and no fear.

Robots, nice cars, lots of great explosions, damaged property, etc.

Lots of great lines for you boys to repeat from here on out.

Review for the girls:

The 2 hot girls - they are actually pretty cool and have good character in the movie. And the brunette is the lead girl. Yay, for brunettes.

The 2 badasses - oh wow. Army boys, handling big guns, muscles flexing, and one of them is a family man. Nice.

The cars are sexy, and the explosions are spectactular to watch.

And the lines, some of the best writing I have heard in an action movie yet.

And for both sexes - the breakout star, Shia Lebouf, he's fantastic. He's the underdog that you root for the entire movie.

Good stuff, go see it. Now.

Please help a fellow South Asian

Joining the bone marrow registry is not hard. I did it on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, it took about 20 minute total - filling out paperwork, swabbing inside of my cheek, closing up the envelope, handing it in, getting back into my car and then going on with my day.

I post this to please urge you all to register. Someone from our community needs our help, and it is up to us to rally behind him and provide the support he needs.

In addition, once you register, be aware that you may be called upon to help. Although it sounds scary, it is the step that needs to be taken to save a life. Please read about donating bone marrow to alleviate any apprehension. It is not an easy process, but remember, those suffering from the disease are having a much worse time then a donor will ever have donating.

Find a registry in your area.

Any other information you will need is available here.

It is a privilege, not a choice, to be able to help another human being.

Friday thoughts.

The first half of my day was frenzied. I had about 3 projects to do, all due at noon, and not one deadline was budging. So I begrudgingly turned "off" the Internet (except for g-mail) and finished it all. Then at lunchtime I walked to my favorite Japanese take-out, chatted with my mom during our daily lunch call* and then came back to another project. Yay. Finished (1 hr). I gleefully then fired up my Internet to surf my usual pop culture gossip sites. Yes, I am an addict, reading about celebrities (or pseudo-celebutantes) and how they make asses of themselves. Today's big news is how Ms. Hilton is going back to jail. That's it. That's all. Nothing else. Awesome. Isn't Lindsay Lohan doing anything crazy in rehab? Britney hasn't shaved her head yet? What, she's just hanging out with the kids in Hawaii?! Boring...


*During my call with my mom, we got to talking about Mamama. It is difficult to hear my mom grieve. And it's difficult because I'm not grieving anymore. I am at peace with her (Mamama) being gone; and it only happened because I believe that she came to me one day. A bit strange but here's how: at a recent Bal-Vihar (Sunday school of sorts for Hindu kids) prayer session, we said a particular prayer which was the first prayer I ever learned, which Mamama taught me. She was in my thoughts ("oh, this is the prayer that Mamama taught me...") as I said the prayer and then it happened. The strongest feeling took over me and as I closed my eyes, she was there. The feeling was so strong that it shook me, I opened my eyes and started looking around and my eyes welled up. After about a minute, I went back to praying.

Since that time, I've been at peace with her being gone. No more random cries and or sad thoughts. In a strange way, I've been at peace regarding a lot of things that were nagging me. No explanation as to how or why, but it is.