Why is it so hard to forgive?

Not for me, for others.
That's what stumps me so often these days. People holding grudge against their loved ones. Why can't people just let it go? How big of an ego do they have that disables them, stops them from letting go and becoming a bigger person? How they live with that feeling of unreasonable expectations or anger or hatred or upsetness whatever you call it - inside them is beyond me. I wish the world was more forgiving and I wish people let go of their high expectations and egos that hold them back from becoming lighter in their minds and hearts and become one one day - in minds and hearts. Especially if it's a loved one. Wishing for more hearts to be forgiving. For it might be too late one day to even forgive someone.

Why isn't there a license for parenting?

I think there should be one.

Reasons: being brainstormed.

Updated: 2012-06-12

Who is accountable for things like these?

- kids who attempt or committed a suicide
- kids who run away from home (doesn't matter for what)
- kids who are never taught about how to be polite, considerate or respectful
- kids who don't study, drop out of school
- kids who kill or hurt others or themselves
- kids who get abused by others (parents do get an opportunity to train the kids about how to face such  situations)
- kids who turn obese or don't care for their diet or living style
-
-

As you'd probably imagine, the list continues.

Some of the things that I don't understand are:

When a parent does not have time to do things, such as having a meal on time, for themselves, why would they even choose to have kids in the first place and ruin another human being's life by doing so by not paying enough attention to them?

For owning a gun you need license because the gun has a power to hurt or kill someone. For a drivers license, the same rule applies as you as a driver have an ability to misuse the power of driving. Shouldn't the same be applicable to a child? That kid would have a power to hurt or kill someone, if not trained correctly.

Even a thing such as a marriage needs a license, then why not parenting?

And why do so many others need to suffer from bad parenting of one/two people?

So why aren't there rules or licensing for parenting?

Enlighten me, if you can.

BLAH is what BLAH does...

You can put any of your favorite words in place of BLAH and it would work.

So after all these many months and weeks, you wonder... where does bachelor Ben Flajnik draw a line? Well, the thing is, he doesn't!

I think I have finally seen a man who can be categorized into a woman because you just can't tell what he wants. Until the end that is, on March 12th. By then it was all down the drain. I was like gimme back my 30+ hours spent on this crap and more. But ah well, that's what you get for getting too much entertained. Many people thought this was all planned, I say that's how they made it look like. May be Courtney wasn't as bad as she was portrayed through out. Cause I mean c'mon, the girl wouldn't come to say sorry in the women tell all episode, would she? I mean, remember the b*tchy gal that fought with that brainy PhD student Emily and called other girls names? That just wasn't the same gal as the one who showed up on the show to meet Chris Harrison and the one who broke down in tears and actually said sorry to everyone?? Looking in the eyes?? I just don't believe that. But as Reality Steve and his readers point out, the dude here isn't thinking or may be thinking with different organs. And to think some of the girls actually stayed behind to watch all of this? That too till the end?? Oh myyyyy goodness! I'm looking at you, Ms. Lindzi. But then I think she probably just wanted to tour Switzerland while she was still at it and not let that opportunity go. Why else would she still be there and just walk away when Ben said that all of a sudden now he was only in love with just one woman where he actually admitted multiple times that he was indeed in love with both of these women? All along as the show went on from one episode to the other, I hoped that some of the girls would just abandon the show and get outta there. That'd have taught some lessons to those who needed them. Badly.

And were Ben's sister and mother NOT thinking? I don't want to use harsh words here but I was stumped, I mean like really STUMPED!! What the heck!! First, they both agreed. "Beauty is skin deep", "red flags", "not getting along with other ladies" and what not and all of a sudden, both of them turn tables and are on Courtney's side. How? Why? When? I got no answers.

Did you actually see in the end that Ben and Courtney had broken up during the time the show aired and just in less than 10 mins they're back together and he's putting on the engagement ring back on her finger? What the? Makes no sense. It's not even filmi any more because then at least the mystery gets resolved at the end and you don't feel like you wasted your time and money.

Oh well, I got more but I'll get that off some other time. Until then.. to more red roses!

Blue Man Group - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

(c) Blue Man Group

It was my first time ever seeing a live show. It was by Blue Man Group. Here are some thoughts:

Good: Of the 100 minutes of show, I want to say only some 15 solid minutes were real performance. A display of what you call pure talent. And I demand all those 100 minutes to be like that. Only that part was really good.

Bad: Silly non-verbal jokes, throwing things around at one another and live video taping and all other time-pass activities do not equal to entertainment. Honestly, it just felt like they were trying to pass as much of those 100 minutes as possible without actually doing anything significant. I know they have it in them. Why waste everybody's time then? There were moments during the show where I felt like I could've been doing something better than be there. It was that bad.

Ugly: Reading funny stuff off of an LCD screen called GiPad (giant iPad?) that lasted for more than 50% of the show time. C'mon, I can do that on the computer at home. Don't have to pay for the show tickets to have that kind of entertainment, do I? No originality and that sucked, man. Completely. Yeah. I don't recommend Blue Man Group. Save your money or go spend it else where. I can't believe some people actually pay hundreds of dollars for this? Appalling!

Hopefully, I don't judge all shows from this one. But I'm afraid now.

Heaven Ya Haiwan?

Hindi geeton ki haalat din-ba-din bigadti hi jaa rahi hai. Dil ko jeet le, man ko chhu jaaye aise shabd likhne waale log nahin rahe ab.

Yeh log heaven (swarg) dikha rahe hai ya haiwaan? Pataa nahin hansna chahiye ya rona...

Pesh hai isi ka nazaaraa:


Chullu-bhar paani mein...

Aur haan, jaise yeh kaafi nahin hai... is hafte yeh geet teesre number pe hai top ten mein. *sigh*

How to Make Mumbai Airports Nicer?

Here's my free advice to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport officials to whom it may concern:

1. Please put the baggage carrying carts in a vending machine where people pay money to get a cart. Have those vending machines on every block of the airport.



2. Either merge the two airports or don't give passengers flights that arrive at one and depart at the other within 5 hours or less.



3. Fire those employees who have invented the modern panchaayat at the airport to chat for hours at like 2 AM in the morning when passengers are frantically asking around for crucial information affecting their flight schedules.



4. Educate the information booth employees to know what the flight schedules are, even better is to fire them and put self help LCD screens instead of those time wasters who are good for nothing and will wave their hand in some random direction saying "I don't know" when passengers ask them for small information such as where is the counter for a certain airline.



5. There's construction all over the place, which I'm really happy about because things can only get better from here. High hopes? I dunno. Any how, while you're at it, put some of those LCD screens at every gate so that passengers know where their next flight departs from.



6. A piece of 2x2 sq ft paper stuck on a counter by scotch-tape/cello-tape with airlines name hand written on there does not count as an airline counter. Please, spend some money to get the airlines' names up so that people who walk from 15-20 ft away can see the counter they're looking for. Sheesh!



7. Either merge Jet airways and Air India or merge their flights going from Mumbai to Ahmedabad. What's with the ridiculous flight schedule that says all the Jet airways and all the Air India flights between these two cities would depart from the domestic airport except for the very first flight of the day by Air India - the one in early morning departs from International airport. I do understand that Air India guys are trying to be more considerate to the passengers by having them not change the airports but those id10ts at the door send everyone to domestic airport without looking at the airlines they've tickets for. And if you don't plan to do anything about this, at least put up those LCD screens I mentioned that say what airport and terminal the flights depart from. God!



8. Please please please start fining heavily to the passengers that remove any baggage that does not belong to them from the baggage claim area and put it aside in a corner. If you didn't realize, this wastes very valuable time of the affected passengers and thus in turn making them miss their next flight.



9. What's with the labelling and stamping of each security scanned baggage? I mean come on, where did you get that from? Sounds very lame practice and to be honest, no one even checks that except for the guys who put it on. FYI, this is a big time waster.



10. Control your hyper employees who start acting like high-class coolies for the passengers who just got off their flights. Some passengers prefer to spend a little extra money to buy their spinner baggage and don't really need your help to push their baggage; you guys are not realizing how miserable you're making the already tired and thoroughly annoyed passengers for some lousy amount of money. Did I already say this? Yeah, putting the carts in vending machine will solve this as the airport will make the much needed money and the passengers won't have to deal with the stalker airport coolies.

Thanks for reading. Hope this list would help make better plans for your future projects. Hopefully, I will be able to break my promise to avoid these airports at any cost in future.

For frustration... there's Microsoft!

So all of a sudden it was gone!

When I press Ctrl + A in MS Word or Outlook compose email, all of the text did not get highlighted. I opened a few other applications to find out whether the "Select All" and "Ctrl + A" had been broken in other places too? Like Wordpad, Notepad, Excel, IE, Firefox and what not. All the places were fine. It was just this one stupid place - Word docs and the Compose more of Outlook. I knew before that they’re both related. So 2+ hours of frustration and frantic search on google and what do I find? Nothing, practically nothing. There’s some dude out there who has spent like weeks finding out that the installation of Rich Text Controls do this. I didn’t have any of that installed. Just an application that used MS Word components. Later on, I asked like a dozen other people whether their "Select All" option had a shortcut changed to something strange like "Ctrl + CLEAR (Num 5)" and they all said no. Btw, if you're wondering that Num 5 means the key 5 on the right hand side of the keyboard where you have the Numbers pad and Num Lock key.

I googled once again only to find nothing about it, even on Microsoft website, nothing turned up for MS Office 2003. They did have something about shortcut changes in Word 2007, but it wasn't 2003. I had 2003. Also found that as usual, they admitted having broken functionality for Select All in Word and Outlook but that too didn't resolve my issue. Where was my Control A, man!? I was super pissed at Microsoft and Bill Gates as usual for hours. Only if I could strangle them. *grrr*

I come back to my Word document after a couple of hours, still very annoyed. I start playing around the Options and Customize menu only to find out that the other application I was using had somehow modified my Normal.dot file so the Ctrl + A shortcut got deleted from it. How? I don't know.

Solution: Under the Tools menu -> Customize -> Commands tab -> Keyboard button -> went to Edit - EditSelectAll and clicked on "Reset All" button to restore the Ctrl + A shortcut under the Current Keys list.

As you can imagine, I felt utterly stupid and silly when I found the solution. But what can I say, that's Microsoft for you.

We can hate it but we can't live without it. *sigh*

Offensive or Effective?

Photo: In Vogue India magazine, an old woman missing her upper front teeth holds a child in rumpled clothes — who is wearing a Fendi bib, which costs about $100.

Images Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

This one along with more such photos have created a havoc among certain Indians. And I can see why. It is because people get offended when the attention is brought to something that they don't have. Forget what ALL they have, as soon as the topic turns to something a person doesn't have, they are going to feel hurt and won't be pleased regardless of how much explanation you give or excuses you make. That's exactly what Vogue has done here. They went to sell of more-affordable-fashion but in turn displayed it in a very poor manner. They ended up pointing finger at the poverty of India.

Is this the way to market new fashion? I don't think so. I only have one question for Priya Tanna who has a lot of justification for these distasteful photos: "Just what were you thinking?"

Here's what Ms. Tanna has to say in the article:

Vogue India editor Priya Tanna’s message to critics of the August shoot: “Lighten up,” she said in a telephone interview. Vogue is about realizing the “power of fashion” she said, and the shoot was saying that “fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful,” she said.

“You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously,” Ms. Tanna said. “We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world,” she said.

Nearly half of India’s population — about 456 million people — live on less than $1.25 a day, according to World Bank figures released last week.

Source - The New York Times

Well, Ms. Tanna, I'm sorry to say the "power of fashion" just went out, and the quality of your magazine along with your reputation has just downgraded to rock bottom with this edition.

Years ago, I used to dislike these brand names for the same reason that they are abusive towards the poor and needy, but eventually I became more forgiving towards them. Now after reading this article I find them just plain disgusting. I have no respect for them.

Silent Treatment

Have you ever given silent treatment to anyone? Or has anyone given it to you?

I do know someone who does it to their spouse on regular basis for every single time they both disagree on some point, which is in fact almost on weekly basis.

What makes people do it? What makes them not express their feelings?

Does silent treatment resolve the problem at hand, if at all you'd call it a problem?

Mine vs. Yours

We have a lot of relations in India and many different names for them, which is really great because it is so much easier to figure out who exactly we are talking about. e.g. in Gujarati, mother's sister is called "maasi", dad's sister is called "foi", mother's brother's wife is called "maami" and dad's brother's wife is called "kaaki", and so on. The list is endless, well almost. Whereas in English, all of these are just aunts. You have to ask, which aunt in particular they're talking about. But that's not the point I am discussing today.

Ever talked to a person who refers to a person from your point of view instead of their own? For example, if I am talking to my father, and say he wants to talk about my mother, he would say "your mother" instead of saying "my wife". This is just a sample of the point I'm trying to make. You talk to your cousin and he/she refers to your mother as "your mother" instead of "my aunt". Now is it only me or this sounds rude to almost everyone on here? I experienced something similar last year and it made me quite upset. I shared my thoughts with a person who is quite close to me and they said I was being over analytical about the situation, but I felt insulted, not for me but for the person they were referring to. Why is it that people refer to others like so? Specially when it is your relatives. Is it because they've never been taught or they are just ignorant or they are plain rude? I mean I can understand if it's your friend's mother and you might not want to call her "aunt" or "Mrs. whatever" and you refer to her as "your mother" but how about for people who are related to you?

Am I thinking too much or do you truly think it is rude to refer to someone like that?

ps. I personally feel that referring to someone as "mine" is much more polite and pleasant to ears than "yours", specially when you are related to them in some way.

Is Reliance stupid?

While I was in India, I was using a Reliance mobile phone. As opposed to the US, in India we have the prepaid cards so once the money runs out, you no longer can initiate phone calls. In some cases, you no longer can receive phone calls either. Another thing to note is, each of these prepaid phones have what they call validity and talk time. Validity meaning they will not give away your phone number to someone else as long as it is valid and you have made the payment for its validity. The validity period could be anywhere from a few months to lifetime depending upon the amount of money you paid for it.

Since the phone I was using also had a prepaid account, every so often I had to add the money to the account as I ran out of funds. So as usual, this once I had a cousin of mine go to local Reliance office and add Rs. 200 to the account so that I can continue to use the phone. Little did I realize and know that the amount will be one rupee too short.

In general, with Reliance after the money is added to the account, the phone is sent two text messages - first one stating that you are trying to add talk time to your account and the second one saying the amount has been credited to the account so now your talk time has been increased by that new (increased) amount minus some taxes.
Now after the payment of Rs. 200 was made to the personnel at their office, I got the first text message saying you are trying to add the money. Fine. I waited for the second text message but it never did come through. I thought may be since I was traveling right after the amount was added or the phone could have been on roaming or whatsoever reason may be... but it was taking longer to come through. Guess what! the money never made it to my account. Why? Because Reliance has this stupid rule, if the amount you give is Rs. 200 then they add it towards the validity of the account vs. Rs. 201 would be added as a talk time. This I found out after more than 24 hours of charging the account and by that time they said it was too late to reverse the transaction. Moreover, I was no longer in the city where the account was charged so it became increasingly difficult to get any of my money back. Also, my cousin who helped me charge the account was no longer available to visit the same office again to reverse the transaction. They had not even given a receipt for the transaction so how can you even show a proof that you just gave money at that office? Headache!

Irony is, the phone I was using had a lifetime of validity and those idiots don't have a computer system that shows what services the account already has to add yet another Rs. 200 to the account towards its validity. To make the long story short and on with the rant, the whole thing was a mess and I lost my Rs. 200.

My question is, why would Reliance do something like this? How stupid is it to assume that if it is an even numbered amount it must be applied towards the validity and an odd numbered amount towards talk time? I thought Reliance guys were better. So much advancement yet so little common sense. Why is it so hard to do simple little things? Why do they make it so hard? Even though you are ready to pay, you do not get the service. I found it very frustrating. I am still ticked off at quite a few things about this whole experience I had, but may be I am overreacting... I don't know. I still don't understand this ridiculous rule of Reliance. Can someone please explain?

Men & Height

What is up with the male population of this planet!? Why can't stand being with a woman who stands taller than them? I have never understood and probably never will. And they say women are hard to understand.. jeez!!!

I got so sick of this one I decided to stop talking about it and just blog it on here. What is it that makes them feel so inferior? Oh boy and the way they lie about it, you'd think they'd get a plastic surgery done if one were available to increase their height even by an inch!!! So what is it??? If someone has an idea, please do shed the light!

*shaking head in disbelief*

Why?

Why are majority of the news in newspapers, and online news sites always about things that are sad and bad? It's always about who died, who got murdered, who got some deadly disease, who killed whom, who dumped whom, who bombed where, who is doing drugs and getting raided, who lost a game, and what other bad things are happening around you and else where on this planet. Enough already!

Why is it always about bad things? Why is there nothing positive written any where to lift your spirits? UGH! I am so sick of bad and sad news every where. :(

An Article "Indian Culture: Not for Sale"

I read this article - Indian Culture: Not for Sale by SUCHI RUDRA VASQUEZ, Jun 13, 2007 - a couple of months back and have been thinking about it since then. There are a lot of things in the article that make me go "oh yes", "that's right", "I agree" at many instances because I have also experienced what it's like to be away from homeland. To feel the loneliness and miss all that is *Indian*.

But I do have to say that there are quite a few points that I disagree with the author. First and foremost, she does not realize the importance of knowing a language regardless of how many people in the world speak it. I would be wrong if I find a fault with her. But I think the responsibility here is on the parents who raise their children without teaching them their mother-tongue/father-tongue. Within last few decades, there have been so many inter-cultural marriages that the individuals involved in these don't realize what they are missing out. Of course there's gain and loss of any such relationship but I have noticed that when an Indian gets married into a non-Indian family, and they choose to let go of their cultural values, they are the ones at loss.

The author asks: "If I asked these questions in Bangla now, would the answers given to me be any different?" Well, the answer is "Of course! yes they would be different." People feel much more comfortable talking to you when they know you speak the same language that they do. Many people don't realize that knowing another language or having your mother-tongue different than English can make a person more knowledgeable at the same time give a child an ability to learn another language in the future.

"How could I possibly ever learn Bangla beyond these few questions? If I spoke only in questions, would they think I knew Bangla?"

"I had already escaped once from where I was born, a place where my parents were not even born but had also escaped to, and still I wasn’t where they began."

How can a person possibly consider it an "escape" to go away from homeland? That's what I didn't understand. I just feel sorry for the people who think so and their children, if at all they have any. Just so sad their parents never realized the value of passing on their valuable culture and language to their children. Then they complain when others point this out. It's quite sad actually to see people not caring for where they come from and to see them trying to become that they aren't.

She asks: "What was I doing here, struggling to learn the local Czech language, which was only useful if I stayed here? It was not like learning English or Spanish or even German, which could come in handy in many places."

After reading that phrase, I realized it is the thinking of people that makes them who they are and when their parents/teachers have failed to teach them about how important it is to know your mother-tongue, there is little an outsider can do. She harps about how she spent an ENTIRE year in Mumbai trying to adjust to the new life and the struggles she had to go through.

Some quotes of the author:

"And so, if I tried to commit to these Bangla "lessons," how would this also be useful to me?"

"But we are always doing something which is useful, practical somehow, isn’t it? Some work that will make us some money, some purchases that will be needed in the future, some planning that will keep us ahead in life. Trying to learn Bangla did not fit into these categories."

"I did not know until later that Haveli refers to a private royal residence..."

I think such thinking makes the author mighty ignorant about where her parents' come from and their mother-tongue. Here I think the author fails to realize that may be her thinking like this was the reason Rehman, the restaurant employee, thought "What does she know about Indian culture? Come on, she doesn’t know anything, yaar."

I just wish people realized how they would raise their children before getting into inter-cultural marriages. Sometimes it's not even this, I have noticed many parents living away from their country, never care to teach their kids their language thinking it's useless to teach the kid or it would be difficult for the child to learn English, if they learned another language before English. This all just does not make any sense to me. I only have one thing to say to such people you are losing your culture, your values, and your children by doing so.

Very Appalling / Totally Unbelievable Matrimonial Ad

Right now in our family we have half a dozen boys and girls who are eligible matrimony candidates so the activity of finding suitable candidates has become a family affair. So during our usual exchange of information, we came across this online ad. What I found was that this guy opens a new profile on a weekly basis because the matrimonial sites won't allow him to keep his ad on their sites longer than a few days. I just can not digest the fact that this guy is for real? So then I searched on google and here's what I found. Completely unbelievable! I think it's a joke and if not, well, good luck or rather tough luck!

[Begin of Ad]

About me

[Pls. note: We are NOT Gujaratis;
but I speak Hindi along with several
languages - Kannada, Telugu, Tamil;
I like the Gujarati way and have Acquaintances with lot of Gujaratis;
the only criteria is being STRICT GARDEN VEGETARIAN]

Good day! "PLEASE READ THE PROFILE CAREFULLY & COMPLETELY ", for
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS,
under point (1).

* ONLY after you INITIALLY send across ALL the stuff requested in point
2 of the profile, it'll be helpful in analysing your family
circumstances and making decisions.

IF INTERESTED,
Kindly respond with ALL the INFO requested in point (2) after going
through OUR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES in point (1).

(1) Looking for a BEAUTIFUL girl,possessing excellent family values,
Degree Educated (3 or 4 years or Masters Degree or recent college
passout),

preferably AGE: between 18 and 25 yrs. ("AROUND 25 YEARS" OR "LESS THAN
25 YEARS"; "THE YOUNGER THE AGE, BETTER" "THE YOUNGER THE AGE,
BETTER"),

STRICT GARDEN VEGETARIAN (the entire family should be pure garden
vegetarian), with excellent family background, preferably from a SMALL &
"AFFLUENT" FAMILY.
----

* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:
* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:

My family consists of MY PARENTS AND MYSELF.

There are 2 options considering our situation -
(a) It will be ideal to TAKE MY PARENTS along with me and the girl TO
ABROAD after completing relevant Visa formalities.

(b) Alternatively, the girl's family has to keep Bangalore/nearby
Bangalore as Base, so that my parents are not alone.

(c) If there is a better solution, pls. inform and we'll think about
it.

- We need to practically care/consider about my/girl's elder parents in
future. Isn't it??????

=====

(2) INITIALLY, please send across
COMPLETE INFO - INDEPTH DETAILS preferred(each and every info requested
pls. because we need to consider several factors/circumstances)
(a) such as full family details, i.e, number of family members
(siblings) and profile of each,

(b) parents occupational details, location of parents

PERMANENT and TEMPORARY residence (Country, State, City) of family
members - if applicable and if family members are staying in different
locations,

CITIZENSHIP and VISA STATUS of family members - if applicable and if
family members are staying in different locations

(c) 'Visa Stamping on the Passport of the girl'(if any) OR
'Visa Status of the girl'(if any) OR
'Valid Passport Holder' - in order to apply for Spouse Visa later,

(d) DATE OF BIRTH, PLACE OF BIRTH, TIME OF BIRTH,

(e) a couple of latest full-length PHOTOGRAPHS

=====

(3) From a H-1B Visa holder, 29 years young hahahaha...(and growing
younger!!), 173 cms., 68 Kgs., simple, friendly guy, DOESN'T SMOKE/DRINK,
fitness freak, down-to-earth guy, magnanimous personality, lively &
cheerful, having great sense of humour,

visited 4 COUNTRIES;

B.E. - Computer Science,
M.I.T.(AUSTRALIA),
Consultant (SINGAPORE),
Consulting Analyst (U.S.A.).

CURRENTLY IN BANGALORE

E-mail contact preferred initially WITH ALL THE REQUESTED DETAILS in
point (2).

IF INTERESTED,
Kindly respond with ALL the INFO requested in point (2) after going
through OUR FAMILY CIRCUMSTANCES in point (1).

Have a pleasant day!

Take care



About My Partner

* ONLY after you INITIALLY send across ALL the stuff requested in point
2 of the profile, it'll be helpful in analysing your family
circumstances and making decisions.

* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:
* Pls. note for those OUT of Bangalore:

My family consists of MY PARENTS AND MYSELF.

There are 2 options considering our situation -
(a) It will be ideal to TAKE MY PARENTS along with me and the girl TO
ABROAD after completing relevant Visa formalities.

(b) Alternatively, the girl's family has to keep Bangalore/nearby
Bangalore as Base, so that my parents are not alone.

(c) If there is a better solution, pls. inform and we'll think about
it.

- We need to practically care/consider about my/girl's elder parents in
future. Isn't it??????

[End of Ad]

Emails in MS Outlook have Gray Background!!

Emails in my MS Outlook have turned gray all of a sudden and I am pulling my hair out because it's very hard to read them now. Finally, after banging my head on wall for some time, I figure it out. It appears that Microsoft came up with this! *jeez* Why do they have to make people's lives harder than they are?

This appears to be happening when the email is formatted as HTML, and not text.

Any message that has any sort of formatting applied to it (fonts, colors, etc.) now appears with the gray background.

Guess why?

I have "Use Windows colors" option unchecked in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0, and the background color default is gray on there. And that is also affecting e-mail display in Outlook. LOL

Only these guys can be so great to do such thing. OK fine I agree that they made this ridiculous option, but why in the world is default background color set to gray instead of white? Don't you guys ask potential users or real users before implementing new features? *sheesh*

Irritating Spellers

Doesn't it annoy you when you read people's writing that's full of spelling mistakes (no, I'm not talking about typos here)? It sets my teeth on edge when I read those incorrect spellings.. over and over again. How can a graduate degree holder (mind you, it's English medium and in the USA) not know that spelling of better is better, not batter?? My guess is, they must have been cooking when they were writing the email. It stumps me to know how a person using computer at work on daily basis not know to run a spell check before sending their emails? I wish I can tell them on their face, that when there is no noise, it's called quiet, not quite. And you don't wander how someone is doing... you wonder. Imagine them teaching their kids..

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I "wander" what (or where?) you are...

Now it makes me wonder if at all they paid any attention to spellings when they were growing up. It's painfully funny, when you ask them to describe themselves, these are the people who would call themselves "vary easy going person" LOL! Of course it's easy because they don't care how to spell, they just type the way they say things.
I saw a profile online where the person was interested in meeting new people before being friends with them or go out on a blind date. He said "will meat then tell" let's just hope there are people out there who are actually interested in meating this guy.

Now I need to "gat" (Wish I can tell them "argh! it's gEt!! gEt!! gEt!! do you get it?") some tea to get rid of this headache. Wishing them "bast" of luck! Or rather to people who have to read their emails. :| Too bad uncle mOnocle isn't everywhere!

No scroll in VB 6

Unbelievably enough MSFT forgot to put this feature in Visual Studio 6.0 VB6 IDE. Kind of funny when you think about it but it was getting so annoying to not being able to scroll using mouse wheel. Finally... found out they have fix for it! :D

Mouse wheel events do not work in the Visual Basic 6.0 IDE