Blog of Parag

caterpillar -> cocoon -> butterfly

It would have been nice to have a photo accompanying this post, but, unfortunately I don't have any.

A few weeks ago, I had made a post about spotting a very hungry caterpillar in our garden. I was planning to catch one and keep it in a box, but, all I found was a cocoon, a few days later. I put that in a box with some mulch. Placed the box in a cool, moist and dark place. Ashwini and I kept checking the box periodically to check the status of the cocoon. Yesterday, we found that the cocoon was broken and a huge moth with beautiful design on its body sitting in the box. Surprisingly, its wings were quite plain. It wasn't moving and I thought that I killed it. But, when Ashwini and I touched its wings, it started to move. By the time, I could run and grab the camera, it started to flutter and flew away.

The very hungry caterpillar is Ashwini's one of the most favorite books. I was very happy that she got to see the transformation described in the book, in real life. Ashwini was very excited to see the moth fly away. Then, she started making up her own story.

The butterfly came out of the cocoon, flied away... went in the woods to find some friends... they had a chat, ate dinner, played with toys, read books and went to bed.

March of Google

The march of Google to conquer your computers continues. Now, they have a messenger application called Google Talk. Just like other Google apps, this has a clean and simple interface.

Supreme court nominee

Doesn't matter what John Roberts' views are, as retiring judge Sandra Day O'Connor said, he lacks one major qualification: "He is not a woman".

I completely agree with her. There should be more women on the Supreme Court and not less.

Boring but safe

If you are looking for better yields than a Certificate of Deposit, with minimal risk, check out ING Prime Rate Trust (PPR). This is a closed end fund that holds commercial loans as assets. At the current trading price of just below $7, it sells at a 5.4% discount to its net asset value and yields 6.6% in dividend that is paid out monthly. I have bought and held this security over the last 2 years and it has done well. The commercial loan rates are variable, hence, in my opinion, in the current climate of interest rate hikes, it should continue to do well.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial consultant. Do your own research before making investments. I am not responsible for your gains or losses.

August 16, 1991

India's Independence day always reminds me of another important day in my life. For the first time in my life, I left my parent's home to live on my own. I headed out to a place that couldn't have been farther away from home. It was about 10,000 miles away on the other side of the Earth. I can't imagine what my parents must have felt while saying those goodbyes. It will be very hard for me to do that with Ashwini, if I ever have to do it.

About 122,640 hours ago, I had arrived at JFK airport in New York. Can't believe that I have spent 40% of my life in USA.

Veggie flowers

I was always curious about how the veggies start out on plants. Click below for a couple of answers... (Okra & Eggplant)

Okra

Eggplant

Posted by Parag at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)

Disclaimers

Last night, while watching NFL, I saw an ad for CIALIS, one of the erectile dysfunction drugs. They had following disclaimers at the end of the ad:

CIALIS is for those who are healthy enough to have sexual activity. CIALIS does not protect a man or his partner from sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

Saw the same STD-related disclaimer for the contraceptive pill, too. Are these really needed? Don't people have any common sense? The only reason for these statements to be in the advertisement is those DAMNED LAWYERS.

Perseids 2005

Early morning of Aug. 12th is going to be the peak for 2005 Perseid meteor showers. I missed last year's show because of cloudy skies and the weather forecast predicts clouds for tonight too. I am stil going to wake up early and catch a few shooting stars tomorrow morning. Hope you have clear sky wherever you are to enjoy the show.

Bond... James Bond

Being a James Bond movies fan, I must have seen every Bond movie at least 5 times and some of them many many more times. I like all the Sean Connery Bond movies better eventhough not as technologically advanced as the newer films. If I have to choose my favorite Bond movie, it would be a tie between "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger". What say you?

Another loss.

Another loss for Indian Cricket team as Jayawardene powers Sri Lankan win. This time, we had no excuses. The venerable captain was back after serving his suspension. He made 51 and joined the 10,000 run club. Sri Lanka was pushed in a corner and were 95 for 6 at one time. Jayawardene just turned the match around with grit and determination. It must have been a great innings to watch.

Page 3

Finally, the search for a likeable hindi movie is over. It took more than one year since "Ab tak Chhappan", but, "Page 3" was quite good. The movie spans a few months in the life of an upcoming journalist. Madhavi Sharma, starts off as a reporter for page 3 stuff (covering parties and events of rich & famous) of the newspaper. Then, moves over to cover the crime beat and stumbles onto a story that is too big for her to deal with. Very good story and screenplay. It is well directed and holds interest till the end. The heroine, Konkana Sensharma was perfect as the reporter. All the actors have performed very well.

V didn't like the end as all the bad guys went scot-free. I liked it because on top of presenting a good story very well, it didn't have all those annoying things that are part of almost every hindi movie. No melodramatic screaming, no lovers running around trees, no songs, no overacting and most of all, no comedians like Johny Lever or Kader Khan.

I highly recommend it. I think I am going to watch all Madhur Bhandarkar movies in the future.

New member of the family

Mike Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech is one of the researchers that announced the discovery of tenth planet in the solar system. The other researchers are Chad Trujillo, of the Gemini Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and David Rabinowitz, of Yale University, New Haven, Conn. They made the discovery in January after re-analyzing data collected over two years and it was announced to the public late last week. The new planet called, 2003UB313, is at least twice the size of Pluto and currently is 97 times further from the sun than the Earth (97 AU).

"It will be visible with a telescope over the next six months and is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky, in the constellation Cetus," said Brown..

Brown is also the proud father of 23 day old baby, Lilah. Congratulations to Mike on both the counts.

Update: Many astronomers speculate that numerous other icy objects larger than Pluto likely exist in the Kuiper Belt of the far distant Solar System. If so, and if some are found closer in than 2003 UB313, it may be premature to call 2003 UB313 the tenth planet.