Thursday, March 5, 2009

25 Things You Never Knew About Me

Thanks to Ava for tagging me.

1) My favorite color is blue. (typical male)
2) I am afraid of medical needles. When young I used to get dizzy given a couple of injections. (typical male)
3) I once piloted a small aircraft for about 3 min, and threw up the rest of the hour long flight. I suppose there ended my dream of ever going into outer space.
4) I cannot handle amusement park rides either, the worst was the space simulator @ EPCOT. My daughter sailed thru' it without a hitch, I was woozy for the next 3 hours.
5) I would very much like to look like my favorite Hindi actor Dev Anand, unfortunately the closest I resemble is Shetty. On second thoughts, that may not be so bad; remember that in those days only villains could really get close to heroines (really evil HeHeHe).
6) These are some Hindi movies I could not bear to see past the interval, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dhoom (1 & 2), Bunty Aur Babli, Guru, KKKG, DevDas (with SRK).
7) Pt 6 for English would be Titanic, Da Vinci Code (actually slept thru it; can't believe a movie containing the Louvre, Versailles, Westminster Abbey, the English Countryside & Tom Hanks can be so bad), Matrix, Mission Impossible, Eyes Wide Shut.
8) The last movie I saw in a theater was "The Reader"; loved it; Kate Winslet deserves her Oscar. I recommend it to everyone, most certainly to book lovers.
9) I have never programmed a VCR, and probably will never do so.
10) I have yet to send a text msg (SMS) from a cell phone, although this is something I probably will do.
11) I have however programmed in FORTRAN using punched cards (IBM 370), in assembly(Intel 8085, Z-80), & paper tape (PDP-11).
12) The first email I sent must have been in the mid-1980's.
13) The first on-line blog I posted on was soc.culture.india (early 1990's, and using text editors, graphical internet browsers were not invented yet.). This blog had the 2nd highest traffic in those days (naturally the 1st was alt.sex; "more talk less action" was the theme common to both.)
14) Although I have spent the last 14+ years developing Real-Time Fixed Income & Derivative Trading Systems for Wall Street, I have yet to personally trade any security.
15) One of my favorite Wall Street trader story is on Dec 31 1999, a trader told me to take the rest of the millennium off.
16) I was in New York City on Sep 11 2001.
17) My favorite card game is Bridge, although have not played it in a long long time.
18) My favorite sports are Cricket & American Football; again have not played either in a very long time.
19) Currently, bicycling, mountain climbing, and swimming are my physical activities.
20) I have julienned vegetables, made a bouquet garni, baked a quiche and roasted whole turkeys and chickens.
21) My favorite food-wine pairing is Salmon with a Red Burgundy.
22) The less said about my artistic abilities, the better.
23) I cannot play any musical instrument.
24) Although I do not believe in palmistry (or astrology or religion); I do have "The Simian Line" on my right hand.
25) I share my birth month (April) with Adolf Hitler & Saddam Hussein. My birth year had significant military episodes in both the countries I have been a citizen off (India-China War, The Cuban Missile Crisis.) [No, this is not a plot for Omen 17 1/2]

I cannot think of anyone to tag (all I know have been tagged); hence stopping for now.

12 comments:

Smita said...

You haven't seen HAHK??? Grrr!!!!

But with the Dev Anand line all galti maaf :D

BTW even I can not ride in amusement rides.....

Piloted?? wow!!!!

Nice to know these l'lle things about u, I had initially hated the Tag but when apne log started doing it I liked it :)

couchpapaya said...

yay titanic haters unite!!! reader was the last movie i watched too, loved it too. really shocked at slumdogs win since so many ppl say the same abt button .. oh well!!

am impressed abt programming with punched cards ... and sending the first email in the mid-80s ... and piloting a plane .... oh let's just say the whole lot!

and i always find something interesting in ur posts, never knew abt the simian line before !!!

loved reading this tag, i agree with smita ... even i was irritated with it earlier :D

couchpapaya said...

errr it just struck me, u SLEPT through MATRIX ??? the FIRST part??? ok, will stop screaming now lol

Ava said...

Look like Shetty.. haha.. Which car do you drive btw? hehehe

Even I wish I looked like Madhubala, but I look like me :(

You know I was really brave about needles. I have never been scared about a jab. The only excruciating time I had was when the nurse tried to spot a vein for the intravenous. the nurse made a jab at the nerve in my hand, didnt like it, made another jab at another place n the glucose sprayed out of the first puncture. Wow, it was quite like something out of an horror movie.

Ava said...

I will second cp.. slept thru matrix????????????

Even I left bunty/bubly midway.. it was so boring.

I sent an email first in early 90s. Even that is pretty good by indian standards.

My cousins used to punch cards. I have worked on HCL SII and programmed in BASIC. We had to do all the processing on 8" floppy drives.. sigh.. those were the days !

Ava said...

just got a funny thought.

Smita's favorite wine pairing would be Salman with Red Wine ..

samir said...

Smita:))
Good to know you cannot handle amusement rides.
That piloting was not much, my friend was the real pilot.
I too was not crazy about it initially, but finally did it.
And I still have to watch a Salman Khan film, and as Ava aptly said; your best pairing would be "Salman with red wine/apple juice."
Samir

samir said...

CP:))
I have yet to see button, so cannot comment; but I liked both Reader & Slumdog. Liked Gran Torino & Frost/Nixon as well.
HeHehe that punch card pgmming was a big hassle; took almost 2 weeks to compile & run a simple task like sorting.
Email in 80's was just the default of US univ's., and piloting was all my friend's work.
An astrologer once told me that simian lines may imply Down's syndrome or mass murderers (LOL)
Agree that this post proved to be interesting.
Did not sleep thru' Matrix (or was it Matrix 2), just did not like it (slept thru' Da Vinci Code.).
Samir

samir said...

Ava:))
Shetty and my car ???; Oh do you mean if I drive one of those big old American cars of the 60's & 70's; the ones with fins etc. and the ones always used by the baddies in Hindi films to transport Sona and other maal (LOL).
(Actually, both my cars are Hybrids; not very exciting.)
I wonder who would be considered better looking Dev Anand or Madhubala?
LOL at you needle & glucose story; fortunately I have not reqd. an IV yet.
As I already told CP, just did not like Matrix; but now you two have browbeaten me in watching it again (HeHe).
Certainly not bad for India, email in early 90's. I have pgmmed in BASIC too, a long time ago.
LOL @ Smita's pairing; good one.
Samir

Ava said...

A couple of nights ago I was watching this movie called Swingers, where a bunch of hollywood strugglers try to make out with girls. In one scene a guy goes up and says hi to a couple of hot girls and one of them simply asks him which car he drives. Meaning that what he looked like, or what he was immaterial as long as he had a hot car.

I hope this explanation is self explanatory. heheh!

Ava said...

Matrix needs to be watched over and over again. It is difficult to 'get' it in one go. I have a friend who had printed out hard copies of its script and watched the movies almost reverentially over and over again. He found profound meaning in it.

samir said...

Ava:))
Thanks for the explanation; considering my cars I doubt if I will be able to attract any hot girls (HeHeHe).
Hmmm. profound meaning in Matrix; I will try and see it again with an un-biased mind.
Thanks
Samir