Rambling of a .COM Fanatic

Reset second hand Tag Heuer Aquaracer Calibre S Regatta

Vikram Mohan — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:44:09 +0000

After wearing my fabulous Tag Heuer Aquaracer Calibre S watch for weeks I noticed something was wrong with it. The second hand was no longer aligned at zero when I switched over to the Chronograph and Regatta mode by pushing in the big button you usually use to adjust time.

Over time this got annoying and very disappointing as the last thing I wanted was to stop wearing it and send it in for repairs :/

After reading up on the Internet I found out that this was a common problem faced by quartz watches that utilize several motors and take in precision timing. This particular watch in general has over 230 components and 5 bi-directional engines that generate twice the amount of torque that a conventional timepiece engine would! Self calibration over a period of time is something that could be understood I guess.

After several weeks of frustration, especially since I did not know how to reset it and not having my manual on me I set out to experiment with it. Least to say not an easy task with a watch having so many modes and complicated means of operation.

I am hereby listing the procedure along with detailed instructions with hopes of helping out whoever might need this information,

For sake of simplicity let us name the buttons on the watch in order of their presence on the watch on the right side
- Button A – Top most button
- Button B – Middle button (between top and bottom ones)
- Button C – Bottom most button
Move the watch to the normal mode of operation, which is where it shows the time (the second hand should now be moving about as it always does)
Press button A and B together for many seconds till all the dials move to the 12 o’ clock position
One more many of the hands would not be aligned and out of position
Now pressing button A will move the hour hand
- Continue moving it till it is aligned at exactly the 12 o’ clock position
- This could be difficult to determine so do it till hidden by the longer minute hand
Press button C now, it will move the reset mode over so you can adjust the minute hand
- Press button A till the minute hand is at the 12 o’ clock position
Press button C now, it will move the reset mode over so you can adjust the second hand
- Press button A till the minute hand is at the 12 o’ clock position
Press button C now, it will move the reset mode to the small hand on the bottom left side of the watch (the one that shows the mode – 0, 1, 2, 3, CHRONO, REGATTA)
- Press button A till the small hand is at the 12 o’ clock position
Press button C now, it will move the reset mode to the small hand on the bottom right side of the watch (the one that says 1/10)
- Press button A till the small hand is at the 12 o’ clock position

You can exit the reset mode at any moment by pressing the button B. This can be done once the hand you need is aligned and in position.

This method should fix all your worries and thank you Tag once again for making pretty watches!

The Gentoo Prayer

Vikram Mohan — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:20:16 +0000

Quoting Jason Jhonson from Oracle Corporation,

Let us pray…

Our system, who art on raised tile,
Hallowed be thy OS.
Thy portage come, thy emerge be done,
On servers, as it is on workstations.
Give us this day, our daily sync,
And forgive us our broken ebuilds,
As we forgive those who break ebuilds against us.
Lead us not into dependency frustration,
But deliver us from rpm evil.
For thine is the make.conf, the USE flags,
And the profile forever…
Gentoo.

AMEN!

Why Salik is going to work

Vikram Mohan — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:43:46 +0000

Ever since the introduction of a proposal by the Road and Transport Authority (RTA) to implement an automated road toll system there have been huge outbursts and protests. The primary concern of the citizens (mainly the expatriates) is that the system is just not going to work, or even if it does it will just cause more chaos and havoc.

Initially the system will be implemented between the Al Garhoud bridge till the Dubai Police Academy interchange on Sheikh Zayed road. The thing that bothers most people is that the entry and exit points to those roads do not have any toll gates. Hence it is possible for someone to say use Al Khail road to get around the toll bridge and join up at Sheikh Zayed road at another point. While this does look like a sure shot method of circumventing the Salik system it would still be able to achieve its task. The problem is not with the implementation of Salik, the problem lies with the interpretation of what Salik is supposed to do.

Before dwelling into this matter perhaps it would help to revisit a similar system, one that was criticized in a similar manner and scoffed and frowned upon. This system has been the envy of many governments with the surprising efficiency it is operating at. It has been studied over and over and even copied by places such as the City of London. It is none other than the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) of the great Lion city, The Republic of Singapore; a city from where our great rulers of the United Arab Emirates have been commonly known to borrow economic policies from.

The ERP system aims to reduce traffic within the Central Business District (CBD) of Singapore. It also is placed strategically at the entry and exit points of expressways and arterial roads that are known to have heavy traffic. ERP is however charged only during peak hours and this basically discourages use of these roads during these periods and gets them to resort to using alternative routes.

Coming back to the Salik system it is not difficult to associate with ERP. Salik like ERP is placed on the Sheikh Zayed road so that people would be discouraged from using it. This would push people off Sheikh Zayed road and get them to consider alternate routes such as Al Khail road and Emirates Road.

While this sounds like a stupid plan to merely diverge the traffic of one road onto other roads and clog those in the process it is crucial to note that Sheikh Zayed Road, running all the way from Trade Centre Roundabout all the way till Abu Dhabi was built with little thought of how this region would undergo such rapid expansion. It was previously just a two lane road then overhauled to have four lanes on either side or at some places over six in each direction.

It was necessary to device a means to get traffic off this road and onto other newer roads which have been built to handle such traffic. By their ability to handle such traffic it is in no way implied that either Al Khail or Emirates road have no traffic on them. By ability to handle such traffic it means a road that is not under constant renovation and construction to add lanes or flyovers. This diversion is essential till at least other alternate means of travel such as the Dubai Metro system (implications of this are covered later) are put into place.

Salik was not devised as a means of reducing traffic on Sheikh Zayed road, though commonly known to be implemented for this reason. The current objective of Salik from a road planning perspective for RTA is the reduction of bottlenecks.

If the current position of the toll bridges is examined this matter could be clarified further. Consider point A to be Garhoud Bridge and point B to be the toll bridge between Al Quoz and the EMAAR development community (the one that houses Emirates Hills, Meadows, and Springs etc.). Point A is one of extreme traffic as it is a key point of commuting between most people lying between anywhere from Abu Dhabi and point B to Sharjah (where most expatriates are know to live due to far more economical means of living). Point B is what could have been called a classic exodus; several thousand people living in one area all having one means of getting to main Dubai, be it to get to their workplace or schools or even to get food.

In order to re-emphasize the objective of Salik and its parent the ERP system it is restated – reducing congestion at key and arterial points of traffic. When the Salik system would go live people would resort to alternative routes of commuting to Point A and Point B, this would result in a direct reduction of traffic at both points. Reduction in traffic would not take place at exactly these points but several interchanges in advance in both directions as people would have to exit well in advance to take their desired alternative route.

The main point to consider is that Salik is here to stay. It will soon be a popular system that will go live throughout the country and serve as an efficient means of reducing traffic; similar in nature to their counterparts be it in Singapore, Hong Kong or even London (where it has drastically cut down on traffic within the Congestion Zone, Zone 1).

Once the Dubai Metro system is active the wide use of Salik will literally inhibit the use of automobiles as a popular means of travel and even the affluent would consider the use of public transport. If not for the cost cutting factor, as a convenient means of transport. Segregation of classes similar to the British Railway system (not racial segregation! But classes of travel) would be essential to culminate the lack of desire of the well heeled to commute with the common man.

Use of Salik throughout UAE would also come with added benefits. Once it can be used as a wide spread means of identifying your vehicle (similar to the compulsory In-Vehicle Unit or IU of Singapore) it can further benefit the public.

Traffic at pick up and drop off points at hospitals can become less clogged; only taxis would be permitted free entry and all other vehicles charged. Once a vehicle drives up to the barrier of the hospitals entrance its Salik tag would be read and the vehicle would be identified as a taxi (each Salik tag has a unique id which in a central database is linked to its license plate) and entry would be permitted, all other vehicles would have the fee deducted from its Salik tag.

Paid parking lots would no longer be a hassle. Salik readers compounded with the use of automated barrier systems would tag vehicles on the way in and out. This would avoid the need for fumbling for loose change or an hourly payment system. A minute based parking payment system could be implemented by use of such means. This reduces the unwillingness on the part of the vehicle driver to pay for paid parking when he/she is sure that only a part of it would be used.

The past proven performance of systems such as Salik does shed some light of optimism and in the long run should benefit the entire traffic infuriation in the region. The Land and Transport Authority of Singapore reports that upon implementation of their ERP system (during peak hours) the road traffic reduced by nearly twenty five thousand vehicles and the average road speed increased by twenty percent. In addition to this the entire restricted region saw a traffic reduction of thirteen percent during operational hours.

What is interesting to note here is that, the public transport system infrastructure before and after implementation of the ERP system was the same. What changed is merely the willingness of the consumer (in this case the driver) to utilize the service (the road) during those hours or encouragement of public to utilize the alternative means of transportation. Now would similar efforts being put in to place especially with the coming of the Dubai Metro system and the reduced use of the Salik system not pave the way to frequent and regular use of the metro?

The future does look bright for the traffic condition of Dubai though with time other modes of correction would have to be implemented such as the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system. This would limit the introduction of new cars every year by a fixed number which would be sold off by an auction system (rich vs. poor situation is unavoidable in this case but seems to work well). Schemes such as this are only feasible once the whole of UAE is interlinked by an accessible public transport system.

In closing it should be noted that as in any economy the consumer only looks into his immediate benefit while the government has to plan for and act on considering scenarios and their long term implications. This insight considered by the government of a country while often not perceived or overlooked by an individual is often in their own interests.

How To Make Java Swing work on Beryl with AIGLX

Vikram Mohan — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 00:01:23 +0000

Well considering the beryl project has no way as of yet to display Swing widgets (combo boxes, drop down menus etc.) display themselves using Sun’s JDK alternate means have to be made use of, so that Java applications can be executed.

Currently the problem seems to lie with Sun’s implementation of Swing and often the problem can be circumvented by utilizing another JDK such blackdown. This can be done in gentoo by doing,

# emerge -va dev-java/blackdown-jdk

# eselect java-vm list

Available Java Virtual Machines:
[1] blackdown-jdk-1.4.2
[2] sun-jdk-1.5
$ eselect java-vm set user 1

Note # represents the root prompt and $ the user prompt. If you wish to set system java-vm you must execute as root (#). The numbers shown above might vary and should be adjusted accordingly.

This solution has a problem… the blackdown JDK is only a 1.4.2 implementation (as of the time of this post) and Java 1.5.0 based applications will not execute. This can potentially be solved by utilizing another open source Java 5 implementation such as dev-java/ibm-jdk-bin (not tested yet).

Another sure shot way of solving this is to utilize a nested X server. The manner in which this works is to launch another X server inside our current one, except this time the nested X server does not have Beryl running inside it and hence does not face the problem we are currently encountering.

Initially a nested X server must be created. This can be done by,

$ screen Xnest :[display number] -ac -geometry

[display number] represents the number we assign to the X server instance and represents the resolution. Eg. to created a nested X server with a display number of 1 and of resolution 1440×900 we would use,

$ screen Xnest :1 -ac -geometry 1440×900

Now that the X server is created in a screen session we detatch from it by pressing the key combination control+alt+a. If you do not have screen you can merely launch it in a console window using the same command without adding the screen prefix.

Every application that is to be launched within the X server must now be told of the display number assigned to it. An application can be started in the nested X server by,

$ DISPLAY=:[display number] [path to app]

The [display number] is the display number we assigned to the nested X server previously and [path to app] is the path to the application we wish to execute in the nested X server. Eg. To execute the application frostwire (located at /usr/bin/frostwire) on a nested X server running on DISPLAY 1 we use the command,

$ DISPLAY=:1 /usr/bin/frostwire

This application can be executed in the background by using a screen command as shown previously.

Good luck and hope the Beryl team works on compatibility so this hassle has to no longer be encountered.

Solution for when Steam shows no text on Wine

Vikram Mohan — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:14:09 +0000

Noticing the advancements in emulation of Windows applications and games on Linux I decided to test out Wine, an open source implementation of the windows application layer using Linux and X.

However there seemed to be no text being displayed which I infered was a result of it not find the much needed Microsoft fonts.

A quick check using “emerge -s corefonts” revelead that the fonts were installed. However upon performing “slocate -u” and “slocate tahoma.ttf” I found that the Tahoma font for some reason was not installed.

Now I had two options,

Install the damn Tahoma font somehow
Emulate the font and let another font replace it

Now when you are as lazy as me you resort to step 2. The wine registry for your user is usually located in your home folder. It can be confirmed by doing “slocate system.reg | grep wine“.

Open this file (make sure it belongs to your user id) and locate the registry key

[Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\FontSubstitutes]

If you are using nano you can do it by (replace USERID with your user id),

nano /home/USERID/.wine/system.reg

Pressing the key combination control+w (activates search mode) and using FontSubstitutes as a search parameter.

Now add the sub key below the registry key,

“Tahoma”=”Times New Roman”

This will use Times New Roman for whenever the Tahoma font is required.

Thats all that is required and now you should be able to see all the text and play Counter Strike and all the other games under Linux !

DRI on ATi Radeon 9600 Mobility M10 – Toshiba SP30-110 – Gentoo Linux

Vikram Mohan — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 07:16:51 +0000

After messing about with Gentoo Linux for over three months I finally managed to get my graphics card to operate under DRI enabled conditions.

DRI or Direct Rendering Infrastructure is a framework that allows direct access to the hardware (of the graphics card) in the X window system. For the ‘children of Microsoft’, X window system is the GUI system the all too often heard but seldom used *nix (Linux/Unix) operating system.

Now ordinarilly this would not be too much of a problem as that is what the drivers of the graphics card is made for right ? To allow access to the hardware components of the graphics card …. including DRI ?? But unfortunately we never live in a perfect world and nothing comes easy.

For the Linux operating system ATi releases its own proprietary drivers in a pre-compiled binary format. These are closed source and updates are usually hardmasked (might be stable but not fully tested). These drivers also taint the kernel which prevents developers from being able to perform debugging operations normally.

The main problem with making use of the Linux ATi proprietary drivers – fglrx is that if composite is enabled then the drivers will not be loaded properly with the OpenGL implementation Mesa. In order to have the drivers working properly with DRI the Composite option in /etc/xorg.conf must not be enabled. This is not what you want to do if you want to make use of the absolutely amazing Beryl.

Alternatively the Open Source Xorg xf86 ATi video drivers can be made use of. These drivers allow you to have DRI enabled and make use of Composite at the same time (by using the preffered method AIGLX, at the time of writing this).

Prior to doing this the Kernel will require recompilation.

Compile AGP Driver

Linux Kernel Configuration: Kernel 2.6

Device Drivers  --->

Character devices  --->

< M > /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)

< M > ATI chipset support

<   > Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)

Add the kernel modules you just compiled into your modules.autoload.d file using nano or whatever you prefer.

File: /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

agpgart

ati-agp

drm

radeon

Now save the kernel configuration file and recompile the kernel. Make sure you save it and boot from it using your boot loader GRUB or LILO.

Compiling the kernel modules from DRM source

Since libdrm is a Mesa dependancy it is a good idea to update it to the unstable branch (atleast I had to). The latest version in portage can be obtained by adding the library to the package.keywords file and re-emerging it.

File: /etc/portage/package.keywords

x11-libs/libdrm ~x86

The use flag for the DRM package will also need to be modified (Optional),

File: /etc/portage/package.use

x11-base/x11-drm video_cards_radeon

Make sure you emerge x11-base/x11-drm now.

The aiglx USE flag above can be ignored if you do not use AIGLX. Reinstall Xorg to be on the safe side. Please note a xorg.conf file can be found at the end of this post. Alternatively when Xorg has finished compilation xorgcfg can be executed to generate a simple configuration. Then the key components can be added to it. To enable 3D acceleration,

File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

…

Section "dri"

Mode    0666

EndSection

…

Make sure that the following lines are present in the config file under the section Modules,

File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

…

Section "Module"

Load "dri"

Load "drm"

Load "glx"

...

EndSection

…

The video driver radeon is specified next,

File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Device"

Identifier  "ATI Radeon"

VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"

Driver      "radeon"

Option      "DRI"     "true"

...

EndSection

Now all that needs to be done is set the OpenGL implementation to the correct one.

eselect opengl set xorg-x11

Once X is all set (feel free to use the configuration files found below), open an Xterm or Konsole (oh yea KDE) and run glxinfo. DRI should be enabled and can be confirmed by,

# glxinfo | grep -i “direct rendering”

direct rendering: Yes

Good luck !!

My configuration files for reference,

/etc/portage/package.keywords/xorg-x11

/etc/portage/package.keywords/core

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Sending Dubai back to the Stone Age

Vikram Mohan — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:31:18 +0000

First it started off as Sahmnet, then it became Dubai Internet City (DIC) Telecom, Now it is called either Du or Tecom (??). Whatever it is apparently this provider of unrestricted, uncensored, elegant Internet service seems to have fueled a massive immoral controversy within the free zone’s (EMAAR properties such as Springs, Meadows, Hills, Greens).

Has this colony evolved into pornography addicted, Isr@ël loving maniacs ? NO, then why would the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) want to annoy the happy user base of their Internet service. Perhaps they want to protect the youth of tomorrow from reading up on breast cancer and corrupt their young minds.

Irrespective of whatever their reasons might be, the TRA has decided to re-implement the proxy based censorship in all these areas.

According to them,

“Unlike etisalat, [Tecom] does not use a proxy server that can prohibit access to undesirable sites such as those featuring pornography.“However, as part of the process to allow du to provide internet services beyond these zones, the TRA will introduce a uniform proxy server across the UAE.”

Apparently now we all will stop looking at haraam and become good devout citizens (denizens). Somehow I really doubt it when all someone has to do to bypass the proxy is google for SSH port redirection; and that my dear telecommunications industry is a method that you can never ever restrict.

Good luck in regulating the industry TRA.

SP Jain Global MBA Program

Vikram Mohan — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 09:20:43 +0000

After finishing my Msc I headed back to Dubai. Not sure what to do I probably figured I would be heading into full time employment. However it seems what lay in the future was something else…..

After considerable thought I decided to enter the selection process for the MBA program in the Dubai campus of SP Jain. At first I thought it would be absolute hell considering they choose only 200 students a year out of the 2000 students that apply for the course. And upon reading blog posts of other candidates who underwent a similar selection process it sounded tiring. However I decided to go for it.

The selection was a three tiered one, similar in structure to the graduate recruitment process I underwent at Citigroup. There was to be a written examination, followed by a Group Discussion and Personal Interview.

Once I confirmed from students that the written examination was just like the one in the GMAT examinations the task was simplified greatly. Now all I had to do was familiarize myself with he format of the examination. There could be no better book to do this with than the great Princeton Review study books. Upon going through them with sufficient detail I came to know what was expected of me. This greatly helped in the examination as I could circumvent the common mistakes people often make in such examinations, I also saved a lot of precious time by not needing to read the explanation on how to answer each section.

Apparently dress code plays a major factor and required me to wear a pretty formal suit along with a tie. Usually I would think this to be silly as the majority of the crowd attending the institution are very informally dressed and anything but posh in appearance. But considering the only guys who were selected in my batch wore suits (me and another dude).

Now the written test seemed pretty easy, with me completing my strong points first. The General Knowledge (last section in the question paper) and the English grammar correction sections seemed to be the easiest and were tackled first. After that came the data sufficiency which included some mathematical questions. At first I seemed concerned that I seemed to have completed the written test way before everyone but after throughly checking all sides of the question paper I was satisfied. We were allocated 90 minutes to complete this stage.
Upon completion of the written test I handed in both the question and answer sheets only to receive another question paper in return for it !!! This consisted of two essay questions, something that was familiar to me again.

The second part of the written examination required me to answer why I wanted to undertake his course and the other asked me to describe a problem I faced at some point in my life and how I overcame it, now I think they would prefer if a work related situation was described here. We were given 20 minutes to answer each essay question.
After the second part of the written examination we were given a 30 minute break. I met the other guys who were in the selection process with me outside the campus during this time. Most of the guys were all undergraduates from India and there were two others who were pretty qualified. One was a guy who had worked for the past year half at Infosys and seemed a pretty smart dude. The other was someone who had completed his Msc and MBA in IT management after his degree course and now was here to do his MBA in something I dont remember; this guy seemed pretty full of himself though he seemed to know his stuff.

After our lunch break came the personal interview. This time there were only five of us guys and two mallu chicks (looks like the hot arab chick and the other mallu boy got sent back till her test results came in). This was a fairly quick process with the dean Mr. Jain verifying our credentials (by merely scanning the application form) and repeating the essay question asking us why we wished to undergo the MBA course.

The group discussion session started after a long wait. The wait was primarily due to the slow and delayed arrival of some huge mallu chick in a saree. We were then told that the topic for group discussion was “Is India an emerging country?“, that we could speak for and against the topic. Everyone being Indian’s obviously went for the topic and spoke positive points on the topic. According to me I absolutely excelled in this stage. I put forward several positive points and topics for discussion. In fact every time the group fumbled for points I took the initiative and gave someone or the other something to analyze. The best thing I possibly did was keep track of time and when I sensed that our time was approaching an end, I addressed the entire group and asked them to summarize our topic of discussion and the content we described. We then concluded to reflect our point of view. This stage probably took 20 minutes or so.

Needless to say I was accepted to undertake this course. Starting this January 2007 I will be joining the Singapore campus of SP Jain to start my course. After six months I will then transfer to the Dubai campus of SP Jain to complete this course.

I guess I am looking forward to going to Singapore though I doubt I will have any real time to have any fun. Yay to going to another exotic city I guess ?

Good bye UK

Vikram Mohan — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 20:04:37 +0000

Time flies like anything. Cannot believe it has been four years since I have been in UK… As far as reflecting on my past is concerned I think it is pretty apparent to anyone who knows me that I have changed a lot; from being the immature kid that I was when I first came here I believe that being in London has taught me a lot.

It is always an experience when you go someplace new and the transition period from which you pick and apprecaite both cultures and learn a moderate lifestyle. Yes it is a life altering experience and you face reality as it, raw and bitter. Meeting people from all walks of life and backgrounds is what University life is all about and that is what makes the difference when you study away from home, far from any shelter you had previously been offered.

Good bye’s have always been hard and that is exactly what I encountered when I met my friends from Middlesex this Saturday (7th October 2006). There happened to be quite a few people I knew, which was quite unexpected. I was originally going for JO’s farewell party with her girlfriend M to Spain forever but there happened to be AM, RN, AB, LY, E which was quite a surprise. They all got to meet D too and very much liked her.

The only thing stopping me from going back home is the Viva for my Msc final project. Once that is over tommorow (11th October 2006) I will be off. My flight leaves tommorow and by tommorow this time I would be in the air.

It ended up being dad who sorted out D’s accomodation in Dubai, how sweet is that. She is visiting me in Dubai one day after I reach there and is spending ten days with me which should be fun. Though she wants to goto Hatta and Al Ain and see all the remote spots which for some reason she likes. I blame the Lonely Planet – Dubai book for that !
No one can predict the future and nothing can be said what no one has seen. But one thing I am sure about, whatever it is I am looking forward to it. After all it cannot be too bad to be back and live in Dubai. Home Sweet Home ? As I said before it is Dubai and the question mark with its degree of uncertainity is very important.

Urges of Men and Women

Vikram Mohan — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:22:35 +0000

Nothing can get more true than this,

I never have quite figured out why the se*ual urges of men and women differ so much. And I never have figured out the whole Venus and Mars thing. And I never figured out why men think with their head and women think with their heart. And I never yet have figured out how the se*ual desire gene gets thrown into a state of turmoil when it hears the words “I do.”

One evening last week, my wife and I were getting into bed. Well, the passion starts to heat up, and she eventually says, “I don’t feel like it. I just want you to hold me.” I said, “WHAT???”

So she says the words that I and every husband on the planet dread. She explains that I must not be in tune with her emotional needs as a woman. I’m thinking, “What was her first clue?” I finally realize that nothing was going to happen that night, so I went to sleep.

The very next day, we went shopping at a big, unnamed department store. I walked around with her while she tried on three different, very expensive outfits. She could not decide which one to take, so I told her to take all three of them. She then tells me that she wants matching shoes worth $200.00 a pair to which I say OK. And then we go to the jewellery department where she gets a pair of diamond earrings.

Let me tell you. She was so excited. She must have thought that I was one wave short of a shipwreck, but I don’t think she cared. I think she was testing me when she asked for a tennis bracelet because she does not even play tennis. I think I threw her for a loop when I told her that it was OK. She was almost se*ually excited from all of this, and you should have seen her face when she said, “I’m ready to go to the cash register.”

I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, “No, honey, I don’t feel like buying all this stuff now.” You should have seen her face. It went completely blank. I then said, “Really, honey, I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while.”

And just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, “You must not be in tune with my financial needs as a man.”

I figure that I won’t be having s*x again until some time after the Spring of 2008 but godammit it was worth it.

Borrowed from Antti Brax.