I am a fan of that ubiquitous sitcom - "Friends". Yeah, call me lame but I did like that. Now, once I got hooked on to HIMYM, it's move over "Friends" I've had enough of your re-runs.  Agreed, HIMYM has almost the same ingredients - 5 friends and a bar (yeah, this is a grown-up version) but it's quite good all the same.

I once read a seven book series called The Dark Tower and well, I liked it. Ofcourse being one of Stephen King's Constant Readers, I might have been biased towards the books. In my opinion, he did manage to keep you hooked and not unnecessarily. 

Every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to write a series of books now. What ever happened to the good old single volume novels? To me, it is nothing but a money making tactic. They know that once you start reading a story, it is not very easy to resist wanting to know how it all ends (if it ends, that is). And I always believed writing was art to the authors. Ah, just like Linus thought Miss Othmar would never accept money for teaching.

It hit me when I finished with book 3 of the Inheritance series. I had always assumed that it was a trilogy and spent a truckload of money on the books. And then I turn to the last page and there in bold letters, Paolini tells me that I will have to fork more moolah to know what the heck happens. Damn it, I was not even remotely interested in dragons and dungeons in the first place.  "Why did you even bother with 3 books?", you ask? No comments! 

Let me first apologise. Sorry LOTR fans. I am sure LOTR is the best magnum opus that has ever been written, typed or just read out. I am sure the history of Upper Earth, Middle Earth and Side Middle Earth (sorry, I just had to use that) is excellent reading material. Not for me though. I haven't been able to get through even the first book. Now, Hobbit. That was a fun read. Short (qualifies for a pun?) and to the point.  

And then I learnt that The Hitchhiker's guide.. is now a six book series. Holy Magrathea!! 

Let me apologise again. This time to my dear, dear better-half. Stephenie Meyer writes a four book series. Hold on. A four book "romantic" novel series.  Of course, it is no ordinary romance. It's the love of a vampire for a mortal woman. But four books for that??? 

Ah ha, now I know what a Constant Reader means. I fell into the same pit long ago, didn't I? No offence, King!

For the love of god, authors. Price that one book twice or thrice its worth, but please spare your loving readers the agony of the wait and the horror of wading through some many million words. Verbal diarrhoea *is* a disease.

P.S: Flames will be left to burn untended!!

Some things that I ponder about.

The glass-and-metal mammoths that are our IT campuses seem to use so much of energy. All lighting is electrical and that must eat away a lot of power. Why aren't companies and architects making conscious effort to use natural lighting to the maximum? Why does it all have to be flourescents?

Look at any board room or conference room. There are always some lights that cannot be switched off at all. Why? What's the need for that? 

Why is it that a single switch very often controls a large bank of lights? Why can't the control be more granular? Is it that inconvenient to toggle a switch? Why not have the switches within each cubicle so I can switch on the one light bulb that I will need? The same applies to plug points. Why can't each switch control exactly one point? 

Why can't the switches and the plug points be above the table or work area? Most times it's tucked underneath. If it were more conveniently placed, more people will take the effort to switch off completely.

There are lots of such simple things that could be done. All of the corporates speak about social responsibility and environmental awareness, but I am yet to see one corporate that puts any effort into even these small things. Can't the govt or the development authority recommend and enforce such requirements? 

Why can't these large campuses have some trees planted around them? Landscaping doesn't have to be just grass. Trees even serve as a shade for the occupants when they want to stretch their legs or have a quick smoke. 

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What's the bit I can do to help the environmental causes that are being battled for around the world? 

Read how the CEO of Wachovia (the latest one to fall - as of now) had a very positive message to the investors only 2 weeks before it had to get bought up.  

This is the kind of ridiculous stuff that has put the whole financial jungle on the spot. 

The bail-out has been rejected albeit temporarily. That should remind the Fed, the Treasury and Mr. Bush that they shouldn't rush in when dealing with so much of the taxpayer's money. Wall Street's reaction to the rejection should help push the proposal through the next time it gets tabled.

It's surprising that nobody wants to question the managements on how they screwed up so big and what they intend to do to prevent this from happening. All they want to do is give them more money. Bah!! I know nothing about business, but that sounds outright idiocy in my view.