First it was as if I was feeling dizzy. Everything around me on thr 6th floor started shaking. When I got up and looked around, people were all running towards the stairs and evacuating the building. The building stopped shaking in about 25 seconds.
We survived yet another earthquake in California of magnitude 5.8. This is not the first time for me as I have survived earthquakes, floods, fires before.

I have 6 more GMail invites. If you are dying to get one, leave your email in the comments or mail me at tiptronicus at gmail dot com

I have some GMail invites. Leave your e-mail address if you need one.

I am on a short vacation till Monday. So there may not be any postings till then.

I am off to India tonight. So blogging will be sporadic till mid-February. This also means I may not be competing in the next Blog Mela, which might give some Mallu bashing opponents a chance to actually win.

We are off on a road trip with friends to (1) Grand Canyon (2) Las Vegas and (3) San Diego. The aim of this trip is to visit all the popular tourist spots. Last time I visited Grand Canyon was in 1999. This time I will see if there has been more erosion in the region. Last time I did not make any money in Las Vegas. This time I do not expect miracles. So blogging will resume after a week.

bq. “Is it true that you can see the Great Wall of China from space?” asked an eager television interviewer.
bq. Yang answered: “Erm, no.”
Irony: Chinese Astronaut, “not being able to see”:http://www.sulekha.com/redirectnh.asp?cid=319406 Great Wall from Space

I think we all have heard this, “Great Wall of China is the only man made object visible from space”. It seems like that is wrong. The following are “visible from space”:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/space/whatsreallyvisiblefromspace
* highways
* airports
* dams
* large vehicles
* harbors
* ships
* tankers
* Egyptian Pyramids
So next time someone tells you about the Great Wall, correct them.

British Airways finally delievered the “lost luggage”:https://varnam.org/archives/000114.html yesterday. One bag was delievered at 10 am. The other at one hour past midnight. They still operate as per GMT.

I am back in Los Angeles. Since we had four pieces of luggage British Airways decided to leave two of them at Heathrow. They will be delivered at home tomorrow (within 24 hrs, that is the promise). This was the first time I travelled by British Airways and still I think Singapore Airlines is the best in terms of overall professional service.
Chennai airport has a new International Departure terminal, which is very spacious and has polite policemen.
Yesterday I was in Chennai, and it rained. The day I landed in Chennai from LA, it was the hottest day in 100 years. Now there is nothing more to see in life.
Blogging will resume in full swing from tomorrow.