min-myinnersoul

If you didn't stay up all night, that is if you are in India, you missed something. It was a lovely show. Olympic opening ceremonies have easily become the greatest show on earth. Beijing was awe inspiring in terms of sheer magnitude and scale. It was an almost impossible act to follow, but London did, in a very different way. You would have had to be a Brit or a complete Anglophile like me, to appreciate the nuances, but even otherwise, as a sheer spectacle it was magic. This post is not about the ceremony, or the sport to follow. Its a lazy, and completely unscientific,  interpretation of national stereotypes from their choice of who would carry the country's flag in the parade ! Some nations simply go for glory - they give it to their most famous sportsman. Serbia gave it to Djokovic. Jamaica gave it to Usain Bolt. Veronica Campbell Brown, their senior sprinter amongst the women would have been a more logical choice, but who is more well known than Usain Bolt. Spain was led ...

 Almost every Thursday night we try to sit down as a family and watch a movie and eat lots of junk food.  If possible, I try to have a theme where the food is concerned. Since we were watching Despicable Me, I decided to try to make all of the food resemble minions. When the movie first came out, S.R. referred to the minions as Tater Tots, so that was an absolute must for the menu.  I found these cute little corn dogs at Publix, and thought they looked like little minions too.  The minion Twinkies were the hit of the night. Can you tell which one was my first attempt;o) I have seen these little guys all over the internet, but never took the time to find out how they were made. I did check for the list of ingredients, though. Through trial and mostly error, here is what I found out...  *mini marshmallows, cut into thirds, are the easiest for the goggles, not the suggested SweeTarts. *I used black gel icing, which I highly suggest against. It's way too runny. ...

If ever there was a nonsensical piece of legislation addressing a farcically trivial issue it is the introduction of the "Team USA Made in America Act". If ever there was proof that US senators and congressmen do nothing useful, here it is. A hullabaloo started when it was discovered that the US Olympic Team's uniforms for the London Olympics were actually made in China. Senators clambered over each other in expressing righteous indignation at this outrage. They are now passing a law that seeks to mandate that future olympic team uniforms have to be made in the US of A. This triggered some admittedly nostalgic memories of my first ever post when I took up blogging three plus years ago. My very first post addressed precisely this issue; so much so that I couldn't resist dredging it up.  Has much changed in three years ?

My good friend Sriram , appears to have become a fan of Ramamritham, just like me. Sriram is an excellent blogger of incredible energy ; who else can keep the scorching pace of 2 or 3 quality posts a day. His post of a few days ago, On the life sucking bureaucracy in India ,  makes a very good read. Heartily endorse the post for readers of this blog. Its a telling comment on our respective energy levels that by the time I have summoned up the effort to cross post, he has already made 3 newer posts despite the fact that he is traveling ! Ah, the advantages of being a younger man !!

On Wednesday, we had another rainy day, so I thought I would do some creative things for the kids. I surprised them with this fun breakfast. I used a cookie cutter to cut the centers out of their toast & cooked a fried egg in the center...they were really unsure about the fried egg, and when E gagged after eating the yolk, I learned that next time I will at least scramble the egg before cooking:o) Regardless, it started the day off right(minus the gagging part).  I made S.R. this little flash card set the other day as well. I had some  laminating sheets , something I always try to have on hand, card stock, & flash cards printed from  Homeschool Creations .  I realized that she had forgotten what her letters looked like...bad mommy:o)  I used the laminating sheets so that she could use a dry erase marker to work on it over and over again.  I made them double sided to save space.  Love that smile:o)  And I love that I got her seal of approva...

Good Tuesday to you all. We are having a great rainy summer afternoon. This is the first time I have felt semi-normal since last Thursday. I had to have two hernias repaired in my belly button, so I am slowly recovering. Today was the first time that the kids and I were home alone, so I needed to find things that wouldn't require any heavy lifting, and that would keep us busy. Painting is always a good go-to for kids. And I haven't picked up a brush in quite some time. This morning we worked our magic on some canvas.  Here is a closer view of what I came up with...a little lamb..or sheep..whichever:o) He is perched upon the mantle for now.   After painting we made homemade ice cream in the living room with an ice cream ball. I was quite impressed with this little contraption. It actually works:o)  You can find one of these Ice Cream Balls  Here . We got lucky and found ours at a yard sale for $5...still in the box:o) After naps, we went outside just before ...

As you grow older, you start to yearn for the familiar. In an ever changing world, that's a real challenge.  Wouldn't it be nice if some things never changed. A fixed beacon in the cauldron that is the world ? Alas that can only be a pipe dream as there is nothing that is impervious to the passage of time. And so, when something that is long standing , finally succumbs to Father Time, it is time to shed a tear. Especially something that has stood for 71 years. When I first went to London, there were two places I HAD to see immediately. The second of them was a trek to Tunbridge Wells in Kent to stand on the hallowed pitch where in 1983, one of the greatest cricket innings of all time happened - Kapil Dev's 175 that launched India on the path to World Cup victory . But the first, even above that sainted place, was for me, Bush House, the home of the BBC in the Strand. You can't enter the building, unless you are an employee, so I contented myself with gazing at its majes...

How would you like to be CEO for 20 minutes ? No this is not one of those employee motivation exercises, nor is it a joke. This is all too real.  That's precisely what happened to Bill Johnson the CEO designate of Duke Energy. All this arose from a merger between Duke and Progress, two giant utility companies in the US. It is now the largest electric utility in the US. As is typical in such merger of giants, the CEO of Duke was to become the Chairman of the combined entity and the CEO of Progress, Bill Johnson, was to become the CEO of the combined entity. Regulatory and shareholder permissions were sought , and received. All very good. On 27th June, Bill Johnson signed his new employment contract and  that was that. The merger was consummated at 4.00 PM on Monday 2nd July. Immediately thereafter the new Board met and sacked Bill Johnson. At 4.20 PM Johnson resigned - he resigned rather than refusing to do so, as he was getting a $10m settlement that way. CEO for 20 minutes. T...

It is a fundamental tenet of capitalism that an investor should be fully informed of all matters relating to his investment. Over the years, regulatory authorities have been increasing disclosure requirements so that there is as much transparency as possible. But has this gone too far ? And has the overreaching legal recourses, especially in the US, led to the purpose being defeated ? No this is not a boring, dry post. Read on. Take the case of Manchester United's IPO filing (if you ask what Manchester United is, I'll clobber you). IPO filers are required to disclose the risks associated with their business. Fair enough. But look at Man U's risks disclosed. They have listed 51 risks. Amongst them are such gems as There could be a decline in the popularity of football (beggars belief)  To service our indebtedness, we require cash, and our ability to generate cash is subject to many factors beyond our control. ( Ha Ha) We are dependent upon the performance and popularity of o...

Can a whole industry be rotten ? Definitely not. As in any field, you should expect the good, the bad and the ugly. But increasingly it is difficult to spot anything good with the financial services industry. Consider the latest scandal to hit the headlines - the manipulation of LIBOR by Barclays and 20 other banks. LIBOR (which stands for London inter bank offer rate) is one of the prime interest rate benchmarks in the world. Many interest rates are fixed at LIBOR plus a premium. LIBOR should therefore be an impartial market rate based on which a whole lot of other transactions revolve. But it now comes out that Barclays has been manipulating this rate for a while. A fine of $450m has been imposed on Barclays and a probe is on with 20 other banks. I know greed is a universal vice and an industry that directly deals with money is especially vulnerable to an overdose of greed. Yet it would be difficult to find an industry that has so allowed its core to rot . One after another, example...