2008- Review- Part 2

Best thing I read:

From the book "Outliers"

• Where you're born and when you're born have an enormous amount to do with whether or not you're successful.
• Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

Best blog post by Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/maybe-you-cant.html

Best food I had in 2008: Butter Chicken cooked by Alan Rasquinha.

Best food not cooked by Alan: Shrimp Pasta cooked by Varun and Pepper Chicken cooked by Gunjan.

Best perfume that I had bought in 2008: Boss Soul by Hugo Boss.

Best car that I drove this year: Mercedes C class.

Biggest fear in 2008: Large Hadron Collider predicted to destroy the earth.

Best Comedy in 2008: There is a two-way tie between:

1. Large Hadron Collider might destroy the earth

and

2. Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric.

to be continued.....

Getting drunk on New Year's eve....

1 beer over a period of 2 hrs---- Blood alcohol level: 0.00

and after 7 hours...

3 oz of scotch---- Blood alcohol level: 0.04

(still feeling good. I knew my name and knew everyone's names!!!)

and then....

1 shot of SoCo---- Blood alcohol level: .068

(feeling little dizzy.....fighting with friends for no apparent reason!!!)

and then...

1 shot of tequila----Blood alcohol level: 0.096

(talking crap... no control!!!)

Lesson to be learnt: Try to avoid taking shots of liquor....if forced to have it, then space out a little bit (the average dissipation rate is .05% per hour).

If I had taken the second shot after an hour, I would have felt normal.

Hmm..only if I had realized all this earlier!!!

2008- Review

2008 was a wonderful year for me. I am sitting here at Starbucks trying to recollect some interesting moments that occurred during the entire year.

And here is my list.

Best moment of 2008: Moving to Winter Park, Florida

Worst moment of 2008: Getting sick after having two shots of tequila and struggling for the next 2 days.

Best lesson that I learnt during 2008: Not to have Tequila shots......ever!!!

Best financial decision: When I purchased Euros and when Euro was appreciating against USD

Worst financial decision: A week later when Euro started depreciating against USD

Best movie of 2008: The Dark Knight

Top 5 movies of 2008:

5. The Curious case of Benjamin Button
4. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Wall- E
2. Iron Man
1. The Dark Knight

Best Performance in a Hollywood movie: Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" and Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man".










Best Movie(s) of 2008 (Tamil): Anjathey and Subramaniapuram.







Best performance in a Tamil Movie: Surya in Vaaranam Ayiram.

Best Sports moment of 2008: India winning against Australia at Perth.

Worst Sports moment of 2008: Patriots missing the NFL playoffs.

Best Sports story of the year: India's meteoric rise in cricket.

Best performance of the year (Cricket): Sachin's fourth innings hundred against England at Chennai and Ishant Sharma's wonderful bowling spell against Ricky Ponting, 3rd Test, Border Gavaskar Trophy, Perth.

Best Performance of the year (non- Cricket): Micheal Phelps' eight gold medal winning performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Best Performance of the year (that doesn't involve Micheal Phelps): Usain Bolt's 100m- 200m double gold at the Beijing Olympics.

Best Songs (in no specific order):

1. Love lockdown by Kanye West.
2. Viva la Vida by Cold Play.
3. So What by Pink.
4. Love in this club by Usher.
5. Disturbia by Rihanna.

Best Songs (Tamil):

1. Nenjikkul Peidhidum from Vaaranam Ayiram by Harris Jeyaraj.
2. Anbe en Anbe from Dhaam Dhoom by Harris Jeyaraj.
3. Kangal Irandal from Subramaniapuram by James Vasanthan.
4. Kathala Kannala from Anjathey by Srikanth Deva.
5. Dosth bada Dosth from Saroja by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Best Songs by A R Rahman:

1. Khwaja mere Khwaja from Jodha Akbar.
2. Kabhi Kabhi Aditi from Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa.
3. Guzharish from Ghajini.

Best ARR song ( Special Award): O saya from Slumdog Millionaire.

Best Song (Special Award): Sinbad the Sailor from Rock On by Shankar- Ehsaan- Loy

Best Books I read in 2008:

1. The Dip by Seth Godin.
2. Truman by David McCullough
3. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
4. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
5. The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow.

Best book that I couldn't complete: The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose.

First book that I started reading in 2009: Galileo's finger by Peter Atkins.

Best TV series that I watched in 2008 (DVD): Arrested Development

To be continued.......