so guess who was invited to sing the national anthem at u.c. irvine basketball games?  yup…the patriot in me.  season starts in november (news to me), so heads up…i will be doing my ode to francis himself in a matter of months.

and guess who sold out her cds at amoeba records?  yup…me too.  we got a message from the store saying that they sold out and would we call them to figure how to get them some inventory.  yup…we will do that! 

i guess this is how the ball gets rolling.  folks…it’s been a great lesson to me.  hang in there.  be relentlessly positive.  your dreams will come true.

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you guys are not going to believe what i did this morning!

i’m spent the night at my folks’ place last night and they are out of town for the weekend.  last night i was cleaning out a couple of cupboards and had all this trash to throw out.  given it was late and it’s creepy to go to the side of the house when it’s dark, i figured i’d get up early, take the trash out, and leave it on the curb for the garbage truck guys to come get it today.

so i stumble out of bed at 7am, walked downstairs, and promptly set off the house alarm.  scared the shit out of me when the damn thing started screaming!  i forgot i turned it on before i went to sleep.  oh my god! 

before you know it, the security folks are on the phone.  i don’t know the secret "i tripped the alarm by accident" code.  next thing you know, the police are at the house wanting to see my id.  do i look like i’m robbing my house a trash bag at a time?

oy!  great way to start the day.  right.

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it’s the weekend of the Fourth of July.  many of us are out and about enjoying this summer heat.  pool parties, BBQs, family and friends.  i’ve been heading to a few parties myself - mostly weddings, which seems to be the party of choice on any given long weekend for South Asians.  that’s because our weddings last days and days.  fabulous celebrations.  check out my friend, Megha, at her sister’s wedding festivities in the photos below.

i’m also prepping for ArtWallah.  we are days away from the madness that has been a love in my life for the past 3 years.  for the past two years, it has been an obsession, offering me tremendous amounts of inspiration and opportunity.  i have gotten the chance to experience some of the most talented South Asian artists on the scene now.  what a gift.

today while i caught up on a few things, i had the tv on in the background.  watching the live 8 concert on mtv.  there are so many causes to support in the world, and so many organizations doing good in the world.  it is surely lovely to see an event built on the shoulders of artists have so much reach - millions of people tuned into the concert, were there live in the 9 cities: london, paris, berlin, rome, phili, barrie, tokyo, johannesburg, and moscow. 

read up on what the live 8 effort is all about - the starting point for the Long Walk to Justice in Edinburgh where folks are going to petition the 8 world leaders at G8 to strive to put an end to poverty.  did you know that every 3 seconds a child dies in the continent of africa?  check out one.

i came along another project that moved me.  it’s the MIT open courseware site.  mit’s mission is to provide free, searchable access to MIT’s course materials and to extend this concept of free education.  it’s fantastic the kinds of information you can get your hands on from anthropology to writing and humanistic studies.  poke around the site.  it’s fascinating.

it’s nice to believe that there are movements at the hand of folks with a platform taking their responsibility seriously.  we all have a voice…we should use it. 

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