Murder by Cricket

Click here to read.

A great piece on the Bob Woolmer saga. ESPN Page 2 columnist Patrick Hruby who knows nothing about Cricket heads to the Carribean to investigate on the murder of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer. He has put together an excellent report on the lingering conspiracy theories, the problems in international cricket, and above all, the legend of a great teacher. A must read.

The Cricket World Cup final is on Saturday. I haven't watched a single game this World Cup but I might watch that one if I am able to get a working link from somewhere. I hope I do. I am done with finals and have some free time right now before spring classes begin (sigh!) on Monday.

I used to like the Australian team growing up. I remember the 1999 World Cup like yesterday. They were the underdogs and it used to be fun cheering for them. Now that they have dominated world Cricket for the past eight years, I don't know if I want to cheer for them anymore. They have become the Manchester United of World Cricket. So I think I am going to cheer for Sri Lanka this weekend. Besides, some of my favorite Australian Cricketers have already retired. Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and the Waugh Brothers to name a few.

Finals, playoffs, and the summer

Three down one more to go! I have one more final left people. Then it's p-a-r-ty. Woo-hoo!

Well, not really. I am taking spring classes so I will be busy for a couple of months, but those classes will be nothing like the core. I will cruise.

I have been having a hard time concentrating on these finals though, especially with the playoffs underway. And it already looks like it's going to be a good one. With Dallas and San Antonio losing yesterday, I can see that all the match ups in the west are going to be closely contested. I still can't believe that the freaking Jazz lost to Houston after the way they played in the first half. Can you believe this? AK cried after the game because he did not get his minutes. What a loser! I don't know how we are going to win with players in that state. Where is the all star that we saw in 2004? Somebody please straighten this guy out.

Anyway, I am going to be done with the semester on Wednesday. 2 more months of classes and then I am off to Cali. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to this spring/summer:

• Piece of cake classes
  
• The playoffs
  
• The California Sunshine and the beaches
• A trip to Orlando
  
• le Tour de France
• UEFA Champions league finals
• playing soccer (It's been a few months, I am rusty)
  
• Making lots of money (and hopefully saving some!)

At a better place

I got the news via a text message from my brother Tuesday. My grandmother on my mother’s side passed away at 10:30 pm NST on Monday. The news wasn’t exactly a surprise because I knew she had been struggling to hold on for the past couple of weeks. Still, loosing somebody on your family is pretty hard. My mother, my aunts, and all my uncles had gone to the village last week to be with her on her final moments. I am glad that they are all there. But it’s kind of sad that I couldn’t see her one final time.

The last time I saw my grandmother was a week before I came here. That was three years ago. Even back then I only saw her couple of times a year, usually during Dashain and winter vacations. So I cannot really say that I have spent a lot of time with her, except when I was a kid. I used to spend my entire two month vacations at the village. Most of the fond memories I have of her come from that time since I spent a lot of time with her.

After I heard the news, I have had countless flashbacks of the times that I spent with her. I guess it is normal to be having these flashbacks. I am very bad at describing memories so I won’t even try. One thing is for sure though; you realize how much you miss someone after you lose them.

It kind of bugs me that I couldn’t see her one last time before she passed away. That reminds me, I need to go home sometime soon. I have three other old grand parents whom I may never see if I don’t.

No, it wasn't aite

I need some sleep. I woke up early this morning to prepare for the Oral exam that I had today. After cramming a lot of junk in my head I headed towards the business school very nervous and under prepared.

Needless to say, I got slammed!

Can you believe that they had us study stuff from the past two semesters for this oral exam thing? I started out ok in every topic but the follow ups just killed me. Whatever Dr. J was looking for when he asked those follow ups, he sure didn’t get the right answer. Instead, he got a lot of umms, uhhs and ahhs. And I am sure that I wasn’t the only one pulling those theatrics. I bet everybody had a hard time during these exams. I sort of recovered towards the end, but not really.

“You did aite.” He said in his Brooklyn accent when we were finished. I could totally see the sarcasm.

I felt good when I got signed up with Dr. J in the morning. At that point I was just relieved that it was Dr. J and not Dr. C taking my exam. Dr. C is an absolute nightmare. The horror of him grilling our group in the group presentation still haunts me (sometimes). I guess I should not feel too bad. It could have been worse with Dr. C.

I hope that I at least get the two points for professionalism. I did dress up in business casual like they suggested.

Update: I got 23/30 which is not good, but still not as bad considering how things went

Wish I could help

School has been rough lately. I hate my teachers for stacking up all the big projects towards the end of the semester. There have been a lot of things that I want to write about. I couldn't even write about my trip this weekend, which was eventful to say the least. I haven't decided (yet) whether this trip was good or bad but I will write something once I figure it out. However, I don't think I will get to it anytime soon. I have finals next week.

Anyways, I just talked for about an hour on the phone with my cousin who lives in Boston. He and I have always been close, ever since we were kids. He is probably one of the top 5 most influential people in my life. Since we do not have a lot of family out here, we end up turning towards each other whenever we need to talk with someone. He had been trying to call me for the past couple of days. Yesterday he called me when I was in a group meeting, so I could not pick up the phone. The day before that I had missed his call because I was in the no-cell-phone-service zone of the library. However, today I met him online and he asked me to call him.

"Things are fine." I got the automatic response when I asked him how things were. We chatted about normal stuff for the first few minutes. Weather, work, family; same old shit. I could tell that he was badly drunk from how he spoke. Something was definitely bothering him, so I pushed him a little bit and he began to open up.

He suddenly started to talk in English. English is cold, or at least that's how I feel because it is not my native tongue. So when we (the non native speakers) speak English, there is a lot less emotion attached. I guess that's why we turn to English when there is something difficult to explain. Not complex, difficult. He probably felt that he could keep his emotions in check if he spoke in English. He couldn't, he started crying. English really did not help him at all. He had been having serious problems in his relationship. I don't really wanna go in to the details but the situation sounded pretty bad.

I am no expert on relationships. I couldn't really offer him anything more than a few "Hang in there" comments. I am a good listener though, and hope that me listening to him helped him somehow. At least he was able to talk to somebody about it instead of just taking everything by himself. I want to help in any other way possible, but don't really know how.

He did hint a few positive things though. He said he joined a fitness club and was doing his vipassana meditation more often. Hopefully, that will help clear his mind.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I heard him cry for the first time in my life. I don't ever remember him crying, not even when we were kids. He is the most upbeat person you will ever meet, the kind of person you turn to when you need confidence in your endeavors. He sounded angry and frustrated. Definitely not the way he is supposed to be. I hope he doesn't do something stupid.

Beware!

An accountant killed one and injured two in his accounting firm a week after he was fired.

Click here to read the article.

This profession makes people lose their minds. what am I getting into!?

Self Reflection Memo

I have a self reflection memo due tomorrow, which I just got done with. We needed to write the memo based on what we have learned from the leadership/teamwork curriculum that was integrated in the core this semester. The memo is supposed to be in a KSS (Keep, Stop, Start) format. It is mostly BS but here are some of the points I wrote which I probably need to keep in mind:

• I have realized that I tend to jump from one thing to another very easily. For example when I am doing something useful like reading the text, I tend to inadvertently open ESPN.com or something else and get lost in that for long stretches of time. I need to stop doing that and focus more on the important material that is on hand.

• I have never been too good at listening to others. My mind floats away when somebody is talking and I tend to get lost in my thoughts. Even when I am working in a group, if somebody is talking I tend to get lost in my thoughts and have to ask my group members to repeat what they were saying. This sometimes tends to delay the overall progress of what we do. I therefore need to concentrate when others are speaking and that will help any group that I am in.

• The DISC survey helped me realize that, I don’t quite fall in the category of people who manage time and set schedules often. Therefore I need to start making a conscious effort on managing time and setting schedules.
(By the way, the DISC survey is a famous survey that tells you which personality type you fall under. I am an “I”nfluencing—persuasive and motivating; sometimes seen as impulsive or intrusive)

• I know that complaining is a very bad habit. But as human nature is, I end up complaining on a lot of small things. I think it adds a lot of negativity in a team setting and lowers the morale of the team. I definitely need to stop.

After reading that you can imagine how boring my paper was. Good luck to the TA that has to grade this junk.

A gem

As I have said before, Sting is one of my favorite artists. I found this on youtube today, a cover of Bill Withers' classic. Enjoy!

Opening Day, Yawn!

I don’t know what all the fuss is about. It’s apparently “Opening Day” in baseball today and everybody is excited. A couple of my group members were having a heated discussion about that today in class. Even my boss was looking at the ESPN article on Opening day when I walked into his office today. I don’t get it. Opening Day? What’s so special about opening day? If it were the playoffs or the World Series, I could understand but opening day just goes beyond my head.

Let me make one thing clear. I haven’t ever watched a full baseball game (ever!) in all of the 3 years that I have been here. The closest I have been to watching a full game is the Yankees-Red Sox playoff game in 2004. How weird is that? It’s surprising even to me because baseball is pretty close to another game that I really love-Cricket, and you would think that the first sport that I would catch up to when I got here was baseball. But No, I am a huge Football and an even bigger basketball fan instead. I am sorry if I offend any baseball fans but baseball is probably even below Ice Hockey for me at this point. Baseball isn’t as popular as the other two sports around here. We are predominantly a Football school and so I really got into Football when I got here. And, I have always been an NBA fan (even before I came here) so it was pretty easy for me to build on the affinity that I already had. So, baseball never really got a chance. There is only so much you can follow.

The reason why I probably haven’t gotten into it is because it is so S….l…o…w and looooooooooooooooong. Nothing Happens! Unlike baseball, in cricket we like to hit the ball (or try to) with the bat every time. This is what kills me when I watch baseball. Could players start hitting the ball more, please? I know, I know. I am just being naïve and I haven’t really tried to understand the game at all. I am sure it is a wonderful game and is worthy of being called America’s favorite pass time.

I am actually going to a Giants game this summer as one of the field trips in my internship. May be that will spark an interest.