Byoost and Rohit go to Taco John's

Ok, so it's not as catchy as Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.....but was interesting enough nevertheless....

So we are heading to Paducah to my friend's engagement. I have been hearing for years how this place called Taco John's is wonderful and a must to visit. It has been on my things to do in my life list for years. So we decided we would eat it for lunch on the way to Paducah, Kentucky. For those of you that don't know, Paducah is a 6 hour drive from Chicago through cornfields. Along the way you pass wonderful towns such as Effinville (man did they get the shaft with that name, why not just call if F-U-ville), Paris, Patuka (which probably gets confused for Paducah by any Indian looking for Paducah), and finally Metropolis (which smartly has taken advantage of the name by building a big superman in the middle of the city).

Well lunchtime was approaching as well and we decide we need to find Taco John's...so we google it and find Taco John's HQ number. Here was the convo:
Rohit: we are on highway 57 at mileage marker 212 and NEED to have Taco John, what is the closest?
Mr. Taco John: we have one in Marion, Illinoism but its not on 57...its a few miles off.
Rohit: Where is that? We HAVE TO HAVE TACO JOHNS.
Mr Taco John: In Marion, Illinois
R: How do I get there?
TJ: you go to Marion and it's on Court Street.
R: How do I get to Marion?
TJ: You'll see a sign..."welcome to Marion"
R: Thanks...do you have a number for them?
TJ: Yeah 555-5555
R: Thanks, and please open a Taco John in Chicago
TJ: we'll try...want to open a franchise? we have some wonderful opportunities available.
R: uh...yeah maybe next time. thanks.
TJ: let us know

SO we call them and the nice lady helps us with directions and we are on our way to TJs.

So anyhow along the way we pass all these wonderful places and i'm crusin down the street smokin endo...sippin on jin and ...ok no...im just cruisin...but i we were all rapping to snoop's song when ugh a speed trap showed up....damnit ...busted...so being the genius i am, i took off my seatbelt and turned off the car...then somebody told me in the US you don't do that or you get a ticket for no seatbelt, and they shoot you cuz they think you mihgt be trying to attack them. So while cop wasn't looking I quickly put the belt back on and somehow got away with a 75$ ticket going 84 miles an hour in a 65 zone. Apparently I was lucky. Had I been going 85 I would have to go to court in this town 5 hours from Chicago just to get my license back. So anyhow we were really tempted to ask the policeman to just hand the freakin ticket and tell us where the nearest Taco John's was...but...not unfortunately it was evident he had to get back to his job, and would not be able to lead us to the promise land.


On resumption we saw a gigantic cross in the middle of a corn field where I made a little prayer to find Taco Johns soon. So going at 65 miles an hour..which feels like a glacial pace after going 90 the whole way...it's 3pm and we are HUNGRY...countless Taco Bells on the way and we almost cave in....no signs for Marion in site...must eat...just as we were thinking of just stopping we finally hit a welcome to Marion sign...having no idea where to go we stumble into a couple of places to ask for directions...and then finally....finally TACO JOHNS


WOW!!!! We tell the lady at the counter our whole story and she says "ya'll know where to find a good taco, this is the right place, it's worth it". So we go in and pretty much order everything on the menu. Was it good? Yes....better than Taco Bell for sure...was it as good as advertised? Probably not, but for all we went through, it was the best damn taco I've ever had. Next week I'm in Mexico City, and i'll be hard pressed to find a better Taco.

So now I can finally cross Taco John's off my list of things to do in my life. One step closer to being complete.

Random Thoughts...

Ugh....I'm sitting at work, scraping everywhere for any ounce of motivation to get things done. So of course, now I have a new distraction...my BLOG.

So let's see...what can I blog about?

SENS

one win away from a finals appearence and they lose at home....ugh...this better just be a blip along the way. But since most of you reading this probably don't care about my Sens or hockey at all, I will not bore you more. They better win though so i can stop ranting about them and watch them in the finals!!!

INSEAD

a) booked my tickets to Singapore. Since I'm officially a student again, I am eligible for student rates!! Just realized that and got an awesome deal. 400$ one way to Singapore in the summer. All you need is an ISIC card.
b) Update on where I'm living. I just realized my last blog update regarding my housing in Singapore was that I'm living in a two bedroom place in Dover. Well unforutnately that didn't work out since the two bedroom was taken right before we put our deposit down. The fortunate part is that we got a 3 bedroom and found another roommate. So now there are 3 of us at Dover in a 3 bdrm. Bharath (who's blog I've linked to) is one of my roommates. He's really lucky and travelling around Europe for a few months before starting at INSEAD. I'm travelling vicariously through him.
c) Student Meets in Fonty, SIngapore, NYC, Boston, SF, Toronto, MExico, Lima, Tokyo, HK, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai, Cairo, Beirut, London...HOW ABOUT FREAKING CHICAGO?????? Is nobody at INSEAD currently living in the midwest? Am I the only one who will not have met someone from class of 08 before starting? NOT FAIR.


LAPTOP

So for those of you that don't know, I've been debating what kind of laptop to get for INSEAD next year. I'm a bit of a gadget "freak", so I enjoy having all the latest toys. So really I wanted a cool new box that I could take out to the bar and pick up with...(not really)...seriously though I wanted something cool and practical that could replace my desktop(s).

So i was going through Netvestibule (INSEAD's hot or not), and came across postings where people were interested in getting a MAC...a mac? why? so it can look cool and they can pay twice as much and not run ANYTHING ON IT? speaking of which let me rant about those STUPID mac ads. Who are they really targetting? I mean PCs can be whatever you want them to be. Can a mac do that? Don't you want something that can be customized (hardware and software), run different applications not created or necessarily endorsed by an evil company? Wait..you can't do that on a mac, cuz nobody cares and nobody ever builds anything for them. Try finding a quality game made for the mac...goood luck. And for those that argue back saying you can run windows on a mac? If you are doing that then why are you paying twice as much? lol

Anyways, to each his/her own. For me after all the research I decided I wanted a tablet. A tablet is perfect for class, you can take notes using a "pen", you can use it as a computer. They are thin and light like regular laptops, and they run either Vista or XP. The only problem is they are bit expensive. Fortunately I found a great Lenovo deal where the Tablet ended up being 50% off. So I got the following system for 1400$:
X60 Tablet
12" SXGA+ screen (1400X1024)
Core 2 Duo 1.6
Windows Vista Business
2 GB RAM
120 GB HD
8 cell battery (8 hour battery life)
3.7 lbs

I'm pretty happy with the deal I got, as I was expecting to spend around that much for a non-tablet notebook.

RANT OF THE DAY
I hate People Energy. They are the local gas company in Chicago. So here is my story. Back in December I signed up for automatic billing. This means they should charge me automatically for the month's bill and deduct it from my credit card. Fine, everything taken care of right? Not exactly...

So the other day I decide I want to cook, so I attempt to turn on the stove...NO GAS...ugh..what happened? So I go downstairs and go through the general pile of letters with wrong addresses and what do I find? A letter from people's gas warning me that they will shut off the gas if I dont pay. Curious I check my emails from December, and sure enough they sent me confirmation that I've been signed up for auto-payment. So I call them up and ask what's going on.


People gas lady: How y'all doin'? Can i elp u?
Me: YOU SHUT OFF MY GAS WTF???
Lady: yi know ya shoulda paid ur billz
Me: I had automatica payment.
Lady: you HAD automatic payment, but we cancelled it back in January.
Me: Thanks for the notice.
Lady: We sent you mail advising you of the change.
Me: You've been sending mail to the wrong address. I live on a UNIT on floor 4, I dont just live on the whole floor.
Lady: That's not our problem
Me: So you send me a notification by email when i sign up, but you dont let me know by email when for some reason you decide to randomly opt me out.
Lady: uh-huh...that's our policy. in fairness though we sent you a notice by regular mail
me: yeah to the wrong address
lady: unfortunately...but I have it changed now.
Me: TURN ON MY GAS
Lady: Not until you pay 250$
Me: Fine charge me
Lady: ok..(she takes credit card info and puts through)...its on hold dont look like it goin thru...u have another card
me: (puzzled)...ok take this
lady: didn't go through either
me: fine I'll pay online ( go and pay online)
lady: call me back when you have paid so we can reconnect

So I pay online. 2 days later I check and 3 payments have gone through for 250$ each. ANGRY, and wanting my gas back I call them

lady: can I help u?
me: probably not, but you charged me 3 times and disconnected my gas without notice.
lady: ill try my best to help
me: try harder
lady: sorry about the triple charge...look on the brightside, now you dont have to pay for a while...(laughs)
me: not funny
lady: so the next appointment we have for reconnecting your gas is on Monday from 11-5pm
me: first of all it's TUESDAY. You didnt have to come in my unit to disconnect, why do you have to come to reconnect? Secondly, 11-5pm??? What is that? I have a job, I have a life, am I supposed to sit at home all day waiting for you to show up? Can't you give me a more specific time.
lady: no sir we need to get into your apartment to reconnect but dont need to get in to disconnect. Also we dont have specific time slots. So we'll see you on Monday. Thanks for doing business with People's Gas. Have a nice day
me: cancel my gas. Its summer anyways and I dont use my stove. Screw you and your stupid monopolistic company. Cick.

So now i have no gas. Whatever, It's not like I've been cooking. But these people are idiots. What unit were they billing me for anyways if they had the wrong address? How can they have such stupid policies? Ugh.... Eventually I did cave in and schedule the appointment for Monday. I wish I had time to sue them, just on principle. But really I dont think it would impact them or their policies.

Anyways thats my rant and why i HATE people's gas.

INSEAD - A Blogger's Paradise

Well I was just thinking about blogging an MBA, and how boring it would be if I went to a school in the US. Blog would be something like this:

Day 1
Today I woke up, and went to class, prof taught XXX, did work, partied, slept.
Day 2
Today I woke up, and went to class, prof taught XXX, did work, partied, slept.
Day 3
Today I woke up, and went to class, prof taught XXX, did work, partied, slept.
Day 4
Today I woke up late, almost missed class and went to class, prof taught XXX, did work, partied, slept.
Day 5
Partied with MBA students
Day 6
BBQ, John got drunk, passed out. We went out afterwards. blah blah blah.
Day 7
Today I woke up, and went to class, prof taught XXX, did work, partied, slept.


How crappy is that? Since INSEAD is not only a MBA program but also apparently a travel program it leads to some interesting blogs. Also most people at INSEAD are out of their normal element, so they have lots to write about.

So anyhow, I have added a bunch of bloggers on my page. Some of these blogs have been the inspiration behind starting my own. Hallonman and Domodomo I'm not sure who you are, but your blogs have inspired me. I hope we can live up to your grand standards. I have also listed all the class of 08 bloggers I know of. If you know of any others, let me know and I will add them as well.

Bharath is one of my roommates for next year and thus his blog is at the top of the list. Also, I'm extremely jealous of him as he is travelling around Europe for 2 months before starting at INSEAD. Wish I could do that....3 trips around the world and numerous smaller trips later, I'm STILL jealous of someone travelling when I'm not...go figure. Enjoy Bharath, I'm sure you'll have a blast. Save some travel energy for INSEAD though.

A bit about my blog though....it will never be a step by step daily account of the MBA program at INSEAD. What it will be is diffrerent experience I have at INSEAD, some sharing of pictures, random thoughts as well as a travel log for all the wonderful places I will no doubt visit :)

a day in May

So I haven't posted in ages. My blog is getting stale...:( Honestly I meant to post earlier. Lots of things going on. Here is a brief rundown:

a) Varun's Wedding - Just got back from an awesome wedding. It was my friend Varun's wedding in Toronto. Varun I have known since second year in college and he is like my brother and his family is part of my extended family. It was a great wedding, everyone from back in the day was down, music was great. The girl is from Bangalore so we thought it would be appropriate to crash the Mehndi in Dhotis. It was pretty funny actually. Have some pics that I will post when they become available. Was really tiring though. I left last Thursday and got back on Sunday, and during that period I must have slept a total of 7 hours. Well worth it though, as it was a great time and a great wedding.

b) My Sens - we made it to the conference finals. Playing Buffalo. Series starts tonight. Couldn't be prouder of the team disposing of the Pens and Devils in 5 games each. Could this be the year? Not like I can watch them next year anyways. Would be a nice sendoff. I have had a kill other team avatar for the past 2 rounds, so it is time to reveal the one for this round (FYI I found it on a sportsnet forum):



c) My Raptors - very dissapointing to lose in 6 games to the hated Nets. Just went to a wedding and we were all around a friend's blackjack refreshing the game every 2 seconds until we finally found out that the Raps lost by 1 in game 6 and their season was over. Sad, but this team is young and will have many good things to come.

d) Serb's Engagement - Next weekend I'm attending Serb and Komal's engagement in Paducah Kentucky. Now that should be a blast. I've never been in small town USA before and this is as small as it gets. Apparently we'll be hitting a local establishment and turning it dry.

e) Mexico City - So as if I didnt have enough things going on, I decided that it would be fun to spend the long weekend in Mexico City with an old friend from back at Microsoft. We'll be going for Memorial Day. Should be fun. I've never been there but I've heard its crazy. Any INSEADers in Mexico who want to meet? Give me a shout. I really want to go to this place called Tepico market...but apparently it's a bit dangerous :) You see, I have this thing, when I go to a big city I want to check out the Ghettos.
eg:
DC - Anacostia - DONE
Chicago - Cabrini Green - DONE
Atlanta - College Park - DONE
Toronto - Jane and Finch - DONE
New York City - The Bronx - DONE
Paris - Montmarte - DONE
Johannesburg - Hillsboro - DONE
Nairboi - ANYWHERE - DONE


So that's what is going on on this day in May....