I am Paul Singh

In addition to books, you can check people out of the Malmo, Sweden library. The library “will let curious visitors check out living people for a 45-minute chat in a project meant to tear down prejudices about different religions, nationalities, or professions”.

I actually spent a day in Malmo last winter and walked right by this library. The idea is pretty neat though, I’d like to see how the community responds to this. I’d be interested in seeing how it might work here in the U.S. with all the misconceptions we have floating around about other cultures (read: brown people).

Finished up this year’s Reston Century on 8/28 with Jack… in short, it was awesome. If you’ve never heard of a century, it’s a 100 mile cycling event. In the old days, people used to compete to finish in under 10 hours. Jack and I finished up this one in 6 hours and 9 minutes over a distance of roughly 103 miles. This wasn’t as fast as we were expecting, but then again, we weren’t expecting some of the climbs that we ended up seeing.

Anyways, Jack’s girlfriend Mabby rules for meeting us at the finish line and taking the only photo we have of the event…

Hmm… maybe Mabby could kindly point out how rough we looked after the ride, heh. Man, I’m looking hurting.

For anyone else that cares, I’m happy to report that training has been paying off… after this one, I didn’t feel too bad. I had no soreness or anything at all the next day… Ironman 2006, here I come!

Next century: Shenandoah Century @JMU on 9/11/05

Yep… Jack and I climbed it yesterday. If you didn’t know, Reddish Knob is one of the highest points in northern Virginia at 4397 feet.

Want to see more pictures of the ride? Check out the gallery.

In short, we set out from JMU at 7AM, rode 22 miles out to the base of the mountain, we climbed the mountain for 6 miles before reaching the summit. After taking in the view for a few minutes, we turned around and headed home.

I think Jack would agree when I say this is probably one of the sweetest rides I’ve ever done. Not only was the scenery and view awesome, but nothing beats knowing that you just climbed a mountain with your bicycle that most people never even think to drive up.

Found a few new blogs today… they’ve been added to the blogroll. Be sure to check them out.

As I was looking through Grow A Brain, I was reminded of all the things I say on a pretty common basis when I’m at work.

Check out: 100 things a SysAdmin should not say

When I first found the list, I attempted to find a “favorite” one but then realized that I say all of these things at least once a week. Hehe.

10 mph :: Trailer

Some guy posted a hilarious rant on Craigslist a few days ago:

My dream is to go on a plane, act crazy suspicious (you know, exactly like all the other terrorists: wearing an obvious turban, sweating profusely and issuing fatwa’s), basically inviting some white folk to beat the shit out of me. Then when they open my bags, it will be full of bibles and medicine for sick children. Then i’ll sue all the muthafuckers and go live on some island with all my money and broken bones. Now that’s the american dream.

Read the rest of the article: im brown, on the metro and messin with your head

PhotoFriday entries are going to be a new thing on this blog. I’ve been meaning to get into this for so long, so here we go.

This week’s assignment was “complexity” and I took this photo when I first started shooting a couple of years ago…

In case you’re wondering, FISAM = Friend Initiated Self Arranged Match, MAM = Mommy Arranged Match vs. arranged marriage. Tazzy highlights the goings-on of a South Asian MAM, complete with real-life accounts, names changed for Aunty protection.

One thing we, people of South-Asian origin, are known for in the world, aside from curry, is our marriage custom. A non-desi person might not be able to name one spice in curry powder but you can bet he/she knows about ‘Arranged Marriage’ phenomenon.

Having gone through this in the past few months, Sukhi and I are a testament to the FISAM method. Although, if you ask my mother, she believes that we’re actually a MAM couple…. I disagree.

Signs you’ve been spotted…
Chapter 1: The Mark

How to respond to persistent matchmakers. Desi girls, take notes.
Chapter 2: The Call

From the Economist:

Research has shown that bosses tend to crack more jokes than do their employees. Women laugh much more in the presence of men, and men generally tell more jokes in the presence of women. Men have even been shown to laugh much more quietly around women, while laughing louder when in a group of men.

I agree with the findings of the research, although I’d love to see how this research was conducted. I’m imagining a bunch of people stuffed into a room with one-way mirrors. A bunch of supernerds with labcoats speaking through a microphone trying to convince people to converse and be normal.

That makes me want a labcoat.

Read more: Theories of humour | Poking fun | Economist.com

This is pretty overwhelming.

The blogosphere is continuing to grow, with a weblog created every second, according to blog trackers Technorati. In its latest State of the Blogosphere report, it said the number of blogs it was tracking now stood at more than 14.2m blogs, up from 7.8m in March. It suggests, on average, the number of blogs is doubling every five months.

A new blog every second? Oy. That is crazy. How am I going to keep up to date?

So many blogs to read, so little time…