Ponnas

Few weeks back I came across an article in sun time about how well some of them are using the coupons. Until that time I had never realized the impact of using coupons. I used to keep few coupons for LNT, BBB, Costco aside so that I can use them, but could never remembered to have them handy at the time of purchase. So I had never used any. Recently I got PDF format of LNT coupon so started printing them before I go there. So today I printed them out and on my way out I saw a BBB coupon on my desk. I know LNT would accept their competitors coupons. So grabbed it with me. I presented both the coupons during the checked out and found that I could not use both in a single purchase. Its common practice and we find this disclaimer on all the coupons. I just wanted to argue logically and asked the checkout agent that if she can accept both the coupons if I made my purchase in 2 transaction? Guess what… she said YES :-/ and applied both the coupons!

I still don’t get how it was different from having all the coupons in one transaction and how the disclaimer of using one per transaction is being validated!

For starters WorldWatch website provides some simple steps to go green. But if you are really interested then Treehugger has more details. I like the 3 step menu bar that gives more clarity.

In past few months the one new thats been daunting every one is the subprime crisis. Some financial gurus started predicting the next target of this crisis and few started pointing towards “Credit Card”. An average American household carries $8000 debt. In this economy there is high chances that some of them will turn out to be bad debt. Going a step ahead now we can see this crisis started bleeding in to student loans. Lenders has started evaluating the students credit reports. If this continues the students will have tough time ahead.

We can also see its effect on the US stock market since Jan 2008. Even though we see lot of things has changed negatively, the federal reserve is trying hard not to declare recession. Every one is worried that it will even worsen things. But I feel if we declare recession and accept things as it is today and move on then things may change. As long as we deny the fact the going will get tougher.

Few years back (in India) I would have never given attention to the  weather section of the news  or  would have never visited the weather.com  website. But now I can’t imagine with out either one of this. Thinking back it felt very natural to get thunder storms or have scorching heat with out expecting them. But now it has became part of our life. I wouldn’t have expected yesterdays snow storm without knowing the forecast. As I expected this I had to get up early to shovel the driveway and start few mins early so that I could reach the train station on time.

Yes, now its possible. Chinese meteorologists are ready to stop the rain that may spoiling the fun at this summer Olympics.

Its an irony to see a developing nation like China running far ahead to the extent of stopping the rain that might interrupt the Olympic games and here in Chicago they are fearing that they may loose to captivate their bid to host 2016 Olympics due to lack of basic infrastructure (yeah I am talking about CTA).

Yesterday I came across this article on CNN Money. With an alarming increase in childhood obesity this should be a welcome change started at Pepsi. I feel Indra Nooyi is doing the right thing at the right time. Just hoping others like McDonalds and KFCs follow the trend!

Many times I have heard this phrase and wondered how to assess the tone of the speaker? I found multiple interpretation of this phrase in Urban Dictionary. Its interesting to see that this phrase has already entered the list of “number one cliche”!

I guess it has become a trend to use more cliche/phrases here in United States. This became more clear when I saw a bigger list of such phrases in ClicheSite.com. Majority of them are originated here.

Its hard to believe that people use such phrases even when they are addressing a big TV/radio audience.

Tata motors (TTM) - Indias No. 1 auto maker was recently in news for two completely opposite achievements. As promised they did come up with an easily affordable (low cost) people’s car Tata Nano. I personally am very happy to see such a innovative yet practical idea. At the same time they are also bidding for Fords Luxury brand cars - Jaguar, Land rover.

I am a believer of “Do one thing and Do it right”.  I can’t understand how the above two completely opposite business models can fit in the same company.

I am hoping everything will go fine for tatas.

I like to listen to music in any spare time I get , while I am alone driving car, on Metra, doing some routing task .. etc. But definitely not everywhere. I was wondering where all I can listen to music and was stumped looking at the H2OAudio . I wonder how many of you are open to this idea!

Here is a website that I found very useful - http://www.walkscore.com

I have started walking to the train station as part of my daily commute to office. Not because of the fact we are out of parking spots in Route-59 metra station, but I like to walk. I hardly see any one walking or even for that matter biking in the morning. So I am not sure how many will find this web site useful?