America, America

Hello, San Jose.

The trip was long and tiring. Checked into the hotel, showered and got online. Plan to call up a few friends and relatives and then hit the sack early. The conference begins tomorrow.

What does a Nair get to do in Silicon Valley? Watch this space.

Flying out tonight

Will be flying out tonight to San Jose, to attend a user conference and a few meetings. Plan to be there for a week and maybe spend another few days at Atlanta before returning. Got a 10 year multiple entry business visa this time round, so will not need to go through this visa interview rigmarole again.

Quote of Arms

This is chilling. From Roger Ebert's review of the new documentary, Hijacking Catastrophe:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Hermann Goering said that at the Nuremberg trials.

On a different note, this movie looks interesting. 

Visa woes

See, the guys at office have been trying to get me a US visa by the 21st, so that I can attend a conference at San Jose, right? The problem is that my interview date for the visa is scheduled for the 27th, a week after I need to fly out. So I kept trying to advance my interview date by going to the TT services website and checking if an earlier date was available.

My manager hits upon the bright idea of trying this round the clock, so sets up the security guard with a laptop and gives him instructions on how to change dates. Sure enough, the security guy calls me at 1:30 am and informs me that he managed to get me a slot for the 20th. I thank him for a job well done.

I arrive today morning and the guard greets me with a happy smile. He says that he kept trying the whole night and just before I got to work today, he saw another vacant slot and changed my date again, back to the 27th.

Boom in The Village

Did anyone notice the very visible boom mike in The Village? I've seen a few movies where the mike is quite visible, but it was very bad in this one, though! Almost every scene in the first half had the mike hanging from top.

I liked the film, however. Passable.

Robotic Rambling

They tell me I need to attend the user conference at San Jose on the 25th. I apply online for a visa, but can get an interview date only for Nov 7, the day I need to return. I try every day and finally get it advanced to the 27th of October, which is still bad as I need to fly out on the 21st. A co-worker happily informs me his brother has blocked six interview slots for him. He's just dying to get to the US. Me, I'm living, but only just.

Got tired of reading new books, so switched to something old and reassuring: Stephen King's Christine. I remember watching the John Carpenter movie at Sree Visakh theatre in Trivandrum, ages ago. I had liked it at that time, not sure if I will if I see it again. My favorite Carpenter movie is Assault On Precint 13, a remake of Rio Bravo. I liked it better than his more famous Halloween. The background music, composed by Carpenter himself, was pretty good too.

Sometimes I feel I am the robot of my childhood tv screens, commanded by an invisible Johnny Soko. "Come On, Giant Robot!", says the voice. I get up, I eat, I work, I sleep. And start another day.

Pai is God, part II

Pai is flying back to Bangalore today, from Sunnyvale. His biggest problem right now is packing the 120 DVDs he's bought.

Let me say that again. He's bringing back 120 movies!! And these aren't your regular Independence Day variety pics. He's got 8 movies of Fellini, a box set of the entire Kubrick collection, he's got some Louis Bunel, he's got El Topo (El Topo!!!!!), Eraser Head, a Jean Renoir box set, a Mike Powell set, a set of 25 Kurosawa movies...

I'm ever so happy I gave him that Cult Movies book to read, a couple of years back.