Hit by US Recession

It was once again time when I was sitting at home, without work, for straight 3 weeks, 3 weeks ago. Thanks to US economy.

I went to the office hale and hearty and in 2 hours time I received a phone call from my recruiter saying today is my last day. Why, they hired a manager who has a different style of working, and is not an architect. I missed my ex manager. May be in bad sense or good, not sure, but sure I did miss him.

There I was, packed my stuff in 1 hr and off to home, with so many questions in mind, what happened. Was it cost cutting, was it my lack of experience, was it bad work, was it less work, was it the way I talk to my co-workers. So many questions, and I had answer to none.

Anyway, I can’t undo the thing which is not in my control. I reached home and had a blast (really) no. Overnight, I updated my profile on all the job sites, in fact activated it, which I posted few weeks ago, anticipating the move. But, had to wait for the weekend so that I can start talking to recruiters. It was that time of the year when I hated the weekends and welcomed the weekdays. Mondays were still unwanted, coz to others it still gives monday blues.

First week went in calls and then something was scheduled for the next week. I was happy, took out the study material, dusted it and starting reading them. Second week, interviews happened, some for fulltime and rest for contracting. People ask how did it go, and my templated reply, interview always goes well, its always the result which is bad.

Finally after my hard work and burning the midnight oil (yeah, yeah), I found 2 contracts in a single day, which one to pick and which one to drop. It was a easy choice. Picked up which was close to train station.

Bottom-line is, if you are a small time contractor then be prepared for going home any time of the day.

Alls well that ends well!!!

Entry for February 20, 2008 - day #5

It was the last day of our visit to Vegas, everybody said what will you do for 5 days in Vegas, and we were still feeling we needed few more days. And yes I am not talking about the vacation part, but the Vegas part. But, we had to leave before 11.00 am so we checked out, took the bus, reached airport and took the flight. In the beginning of the fight the flight captain said its -1 F in Boston, everybody screamed don’t start the plan, and we want to stay here. Yes even I screamed. But we reached Boston, and it was 9.15PM. The vacation was over, and we have to go to office tomorrow. Neither of us was in mood. But, good things have to come to an end. So did our vacation. We will again go back to Vegas some time.

Entry for February 19, 2008 Day #4

As it is said that, in Vegas you need nights and not the days, we truly adhered to the rules and slept at 3.30 am, as a result we got up at 7am and Manu woke up at 10am and as soon she woke up she said I am having a bad headache, I was wondering, Manu don’t drink and still headache. Today we went to the top of the world, yes its true and not virtual, we were at 108^th Floor of the building. And everything was so small, at first I was scared, but later it was ok. There were some rides known as Insanity on 109^th floor, and they were real insane. You should really see the pictures to believe them. We had Mexican food for the lunch and we were back on the slot machines. After losing few more moolah, we marched to our rooms for a little rest and to again hit the roads you need some energy.

In the evening we went to Paris, yes another hotel, with their Eifel tower. Yes, we went on this tower @ 88^th floor. Well now the big thing was the lift for this tower was open for most of the height, open as in it was glass lift, so you could actually see what is under your feet and also the whole strip is clearly visible. Eifel tower is right opposite to Bellagio. So we waited for next few minutes with others and the fountain at Bellagio started. It was the most romantic evening already, and to top up with the cherry, the fountain played Celine Dion’s Titanic’s title song. Manu was all mesmerized listening the song in my arms. Well, it was a small song, and Ruby Didi was already there in Vegas for her conference, we planned to see her. Man, people have their conference in Vegas, wonder Doctors study or gamble. So then went to Mandalay Bay to pick her up and then walked down back to Paris. We clicked few pics with her in Bellagio and fountain and Eifel tower. Then by the time we left her again, it was 12.30 and I was dead tired. Manu still wanted to see Wynn, but I was in no mood. So we reached hotel straight away, and I hit the sack, while Manu was up for some time, getting ready for tomorrow.

Entry for February 18, 2008 - Day #3

Third day started with the feeling what will happen without a car. Yes, we were supposed to return the car after enjoying 2 days and 200$ in the rental and gas. Well, Grand Canyon could not be that fast without a SUV and it took us anyway more than 1 day to return, so it had to be for one more day. Anyway we started our ride back home with the famous picture at the starting of the strip at Las Vegas blvd. We covered couple of hotels the ones that were far from Stratosphere in 3-4 hours, and left the rest of them for the night. We reached hotel and while the way back to the room we cruised through casino and thought of trying more hands on the slot machines. And voila, this time we won 20$ of 1cent. This was the first trap for us. We set the deadline for 5 bucks more. After 5 bucks, we saw in the eyes of each other and without saying a word I pressed the spin button on the machine. And yes we lost those 20$ as well, after couple of wins and more of losses. We reached out to our room and had a good evening sleep for 4 hours and got up at 8 o‘clock, and we were damn hungry. We got ready and straight away headed to the Indian restaurant at Rio. Food was damn good and at the same time damn costly. Then we started the journey to the hotels where we left in the afternoon and entered every hotel, we could on the strip, on both sides. We would have walked for at least 3 miles. Our feet were tired but we were wide awake. After we reached the hotel, we sat down at the slot machines and then started playing again, and guess what we again won 23 bucks when playing for 1 cent. We were happy and this time more greedy, started thinking, it would be good if we get the cost of the trip back. But happy times last less…we lost those 23 dollars with the initial 2 dollar investment we did. Although, in the article I read about the slot machine, there was this 10 point important tip. One of them was, divide your money into the days, and then keep the winnings aside. And only play with the initial amount. And I dint follow the same. The only thing I liked about the casinos is you get free drink as long as you are gaming. I guess this is just a little trick hotel guys play to keep the important money coming in.

Entry for February 17, 2008 - Day#2

We both woke up before the phone alarm could ring @ 5. And we were ready by 6.15, could somebody imagine, vacation time and waking up @ 5 in the morning (actually it was 7AM EST). We started for the Canyons. The most beautiful part of the day to be spent at the Canyons is either sunset or sunrise. And we saw both. It was all shades of light orange, dark orange and red after the dull sunrise. We drove another 20 miles towards the east Rim of Canyons. East rim had a better and broadest view. We returned soon after that, to the lodge and started packing up stuff, it was again 4 hr drive back to Vegas. The gps device showed around 6 hours from the lodge to the hotel in Las Vegas. But those awesome roads were simple irresistible. I was driving @ 90 if the max limit is 75 and @ 80 if the max speed was 65. Sometimes, touching 95 too just for the sake of scaring Manu. So the drive for 6 hours was completed in 4.5 hours. The roads were simple amazing. And these people drive here like hell. Was wondering what if they come to New York or any New Yorker comes here? We reached Vegas and reached the hotel lobby - Stratosphere. Finally we got our room and had a hot water bath gearing up for the night. We were still having the car so we did 2 rounds of the whole 6 mile strip. Which I don’t know was possible if we had to walk. Somebody told us there is an option of a bus running regularly on the strip and is a better mode of transportation. We will try that tomorrow. And we were again hungry and tired. So instead of roaming here and there we decided to watch a show and so bought tickets for crazy girls (For those who don’t know what that is I would suggest googling it.).

We returned to hotel after making a trip to the Fremont St, where there is a large, street long TV screen, spectacular and amazing. We also tried our hands on one of the slot machines. And so far the counting of the bets we lost has reached USD 5. After researching a bit over the slot machines, I found out that there is a combination of numbers which decide what combination will be next. There are 32 symbols in a particular roll and 3 rolls for a line across for the most basic machine. So, there is a 1 out of 32x32x32 = 32,768 chances of winning. Generally there are machine which pay you 95 to 98% of the total input, but winning is still decided from the Random Number Generator (RNG).