Goodbye 2011 !! (What got my attention this year ?)

As we say good bye to this incredible year (2011) and welcome the new year (2012) it is time to look upon some of the important highlights of the passing year. I have made this list of events for the year 2011 keeping into consideration the events of relevant importance. I might have missed a lots of things as I only tend to care about stuff that I like. So in nutshell this list might not be the perfect list for everyone but it sure will be fun to read. I’ve tried to include most of the important events from the field of politics, economics, technology, social networking, personal and of course the incredible world of cinema and the movies that I saw. Hope you all like it and find it informational.

So here we go:

Jan 11th – Verizon announces iPhone on their network  and started selling the phone in February.
Jan 23rd – Political revolution started in Egypt and spread across other middle-east countries (Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia)


Feb - Nothing much happened that got my attention. I might be sleeping for the whole month. Moving on.


Mar 2nd – Apple introduces iPad2 with lots of new features and slimmer design.
Mar 11th – iPad2 goes live ; 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan (5th strongest since 1900)
Mar 20th – AT&T proposes to buy T-mobile for $39 billion (will becomes #1 US wireless carrier post-merger)


April 4th – Larry Page took the responsibility as Google’s CEO
April 28th – Apple introduces the White iPhone
April 29th – I ran my 1st 5K of 2011 – Illinois Marathon (This is my First 5K ever) – Champaign, IL


May 2nd – Osama Bin Laden killed by the US Navy Seals
May 10th – Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion in cash
May 19th – IPO of LinkedIn – Target open price $45 per share, planning to sell 7.8 million share on its first day and will raise around $352 million.
May 24th – IPO of Yandex (Russia’s answer to Google)


June 4th – My 2nd 5K run of 2011 – Tuscola, IL
June 6th – Apple unveils iOS 5, iCloud and MAC OS X Lion at WWDC 2011
June 16th – IBM completed 100 years in business
June 28th – Google launches Google+ and joined the war against Facebook


July 1st – Watched Transformers 3
July 4th – My 3rd 5K run of 2011 – Champaign, IL
July 20th – OS X Lion released


Aug 4th – Dow loses 512.76 point (4.31% down), NASDAQ loses 136.68 points (5.08% down), S&P500 loses 60.27 points (4.78% down) – Worst day for the market since Dec 2008
Aug 5th – S&P downgraded the US debt rating to AA+ from AAA
Aug 6th – Watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Aug 8th – S&P downgraded the debt rating for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to AA+
Aug 8th - Dow loses 634.76 point (5.55% down), NASDAQ loses 174.72 points (6.09% down), S&P500 loses 79.92 points (6.66% down) – Another very bad day for the market since Dec 2008
Aug 9th – Apple overtakes Exxon Mobil for the first time to become the most valuable public company (in any field of business).
Aug 10th – Another bad day for the market. DOW sheds 519.83 point, NASDAQ loses 101.47 point and S&P loses 51.77 point.
Aug 10th – At the close of the market, Apple ahead of Exxon Mobil for the first time ever and became the most valuable company in the world.
Aug 15th - Google decided to acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion.
Aug 18th – HP decided to abandon WebOS, and confirm its plan to spin off PC business.
Aug 24th – Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO. Tim Cook became new Apple CEO
Aug 25th – Linux OS turned 20


Sep 6th – Yahoo board fired CEO Carol Bartz.
Sep 9th – Watched Warrior
Sep 12th – I got the First position in the company wide innovation challenge – Task 1
Sep 13th – Another first position in the company wide innovation challenge for Task 2, plus a 2nd position in Task 3
Sep 13th – Microsoft introduces new Windows 8 (beta) platform
Sep 17th – My 4th 5K run of 2011 – Savoy, IL
Sep 19th – Netflix rebranded their DVD business as Qwikster; Add Game rentals
Sep 19th – Google launches Google Wallet (Wireless payment technology using NFC as its underlying technology) on Sprint
Sep 22nd – HP board replaces CEO Leo Apotheker with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Meg became the 6th (counting the interim CEOs) new CEO of HP in the last 10 years
Sep 25th – Watched Moneyball
Sep 28th – Amazon introduces its first Android based tablet – Kindle Fire ($199).


Oct 4th – Apple launches voice controlled (SIRI) iPhone 4S along with iOS 5 & iCloud.
Oct 5th – Steve Jobs died at an age of 56
Oct 8th – Dennis Ritchie - Father of C and Unix passed away
Oct 10th – Netflix kills Qwikster (rebranded DVD business) before its implementation
Oct 13th – Raj Rajaratnam sentenced to spend 11 years in prison (finally some action taken against insider trading)
Oct 19th – Google unveils Android 4.0 a.ka. Ice Cream Sandwich (bundled with facial recognition, Android Beam and revamped user interface menu – Roboto)
Oct 20th - Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was killed by revolutionary forces (Biggest triumph of the Arab revolution)
Oct 20th -  I Ordered White iPhone 4S (64gb)
Oct 23rd – iPod completed 10 years. Thanks you Steve for revolutionizing our music world
Oct 25th – IBM named Virginia Rometty as first female CEO
Oct 26th – Received iPhone 4S (our first ever) – good day…good day indeed
Oct 28th – HP decided not to spin off PC business


Nov 1st – Blog completed 1 year - Wow !!!
Nov 4th - IPO of Groupon – Target open price $20 per share, planning to sell 35 million share on its first day and will raise around $700 million
Nov 29th – American Airline file for bankruptcy
Nov 30th – DOW largest gain since March 2009 up by 4.24% (increase of 490.05 points)


Dec 2nd – Jobless rate drops to 2 year low to 8.6%
Dec 14th – Date with GMAT (scored dismal 370)
Dec 16th – Zynga (popular Facebook game maker) launched its IPO - largest technology IPO since Google. Shares open at $10, driving Zynga’s valuation to around $7 billion.
Dec 17th – North Korea’s Kim Jong II died. Kim Jong’s 29 year old son named as his successor.
Dec 19th – AT & T dropped its bid to own T-Mobile. The merger that fall apart will punish AT & T by making the company pay $4 billion to T-Mobile.
Dec 20th – Apple bought Anobit (flash manufacturing company based in Israel) for around $500 million.
Dec 22nd – Watched Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Dec 28th - Received official GMAT report and got a perfect score of 6.0 in the AWA section
Dec 31st - Apple's Design guru has been made a Knight Commander of the British Empire - "Sir" Jonathan Ive


That's it fellas. It is a long post and I thank you all for reading it.

I wish people around the World a wonderful and prosperous New Year. Hope you all will be able to make some resolutions for the new year and work towards making them true.

Enjoy and Have Fun !!!!!!

Perfect score - AWA (GMAT)

I got the official scores for the GMAT today. I have mentioned earlier on this blog that I failed miserably in the GMAT. I don’t know whether I should consider my GMAT debacle as an act of failure as I haven’t studied at all for this exam. That is an open discussion from my end and it seems the contest between me and my inner conscious will go on for sometime.

Good news is that this official GMAT report has bring in some hope for me as far as my GMAT journey is concerned. I got a perfect score of 6.0 in AWA (Analytical Writing Assessment). According to the GMAT scoring scale, the score of 6.0 some how resolves to 91 percentile which according to GMAT is the highest score in the AWA section of the exam. The AWA section comprises of two essays of 30 minutes each (one asking to analyse an argument and the other asking to analyse an issue).

Fun part is I never knew what AWA structure looks like nor I have read anything about it. First time I saw anything related to AWA was during the time I was giving the GMAT and yet I scored perfectly. It seems all the efforts I did in order to write 130+ posts on this blog has finally paid off. I am pretty happy that I’ve made the decision to start this blog which in return has improved my writing skills (atleast this is what GMAT thinks).

The score of 6.0 in the AWA section has given me some motivation that I can still do something about my GMAT. It seems some part of my brain is still functioning and I need to act fast before becoming brain dead.

Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

It seems all that has been said and written about the latest Mission Impossible (Ghost Protocol) turns out to be true. I am extremely happy for the way things are moving in the favour of the Mission Impossible series. I got the chance to watch the movie last weekend and I am completely blown away by the movie, the concept, the direction, the latest electronic gadgetry and the breath taking stunts performed by none other than but Tom Cruise himself. Seeing Tom Cruise in action was fun, specially the Burj Khalifa scene was a classic Tom Cruise stunt. Cruise is almost 50 and by no way you can guess his age by looking at the incredible things he does which not only require tremendous energy but a lot of motivation and hard work. I am equally impressed with Jeremy Renner and I believe he got a bright future ahead of him.

Brad Bird (director of Incredibles & Ratatouille) have done a fantastic job in directing this movie. Keeping into consideration that Mission Impossible is Bird’s first live-action movie I guess he should make more live actioners than animated movies.

It was a fantastic year as far as movies are concerned. I have started the year with Transformers and now Mission Impossible is the perfect ending to this incredible year, as far as movies are concerned. Hope 2012 will bring in more excitement and fun and hope we all will see really good movies in the coming year.

Mission Impossible is a must watch.

The mission is to watch Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol as soon as possible. Your mission should you choose to accept…..Hell YA !!!!

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey (HD Trailer)

Watch the trailer of "The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey". This will be another eagerly awaited movies which will come out next year. Peter Jackson is one of my favourite directors and hope he can recreate the magic of Lord of the Rings in this prequel.

Gollum is back !!

The Dark Knight Rises (HD Trailer # 2)

Those of you who have watched the 9 minutes preview of the The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX last weekend were very lucky to see the introduction of Bane, for the remaining ones like us here is the 2nd trailer of the most awaited movie of next year. Mark my words this movie will rock as Chris Nolan is trying to compete with himself. If you are still not convinced then watch the football field scene in the trailer below and decide for your self. Bane is coming and so is Chris Nolan's another master piece.

"When Gotham is ashes," Bane tells Wayne. "You have my permission to die".

Can't wait to watch this one.

370

I got 370 in the GMAT. All my predictios were correct as far as the score is concern. Read my previous post to know more about that. Unfortunately GMAT percentile is no way in proportion to your estimates it tests your ability in Quant and Verbal.

Now I need to sit back and decide what I would like to do about it. I have no regrets about this score because I haven’t studied at all and once again read the previous post to know more about that. My only concern is how to deal with this situation and what plan needs to be in place if I still want to give GMAT.

Heading for the disaster - Date with GMAT

In precisely two hours or so I will sit in my car and head towards the GMAT exam center. Oh yeah, after postponing this exam for almost 2 years the time has come that I should look into the eyes of GMAT. The important question is, am I ready to do so? With the heavy heart I must admit I am most certainly not ready to face the GMAT.... not today. Then why the hell I am inclined towards giving the GMAT? Well to be frank I have decided that I have to give the GMAT no matter what before the year end and I guess the time has come to complete what I have decided. Moreover so far postponing the exam has not helped me and somehow I am not able to tune my mind or get myself disciplined enough to prepare for the exam. I know it is hard to explain in words but this is what it is.

So what happen and why I was not able to prepare? Was it my work schedule, home duties, wife, kids blah blah blah? To answer that, no one should be blamed as it is me who should be held responsible for not preparing for the GMAT. It is me and only me from the beginning as I was not able to come with a solid prep plan and I was not able to teach myself to be a disciplinarian to study for the GMAT.

There are very few out there who actually know what they are going to score in the GMAT or exams like that. Some of them are the ones who have studied relentlessly for the exam, put in hundreds of hours for the preparation, solved thousands of problems, and faced my practice tests and they are the one who can estimate to some extent what there score might be. On the other hand there are also some people like me who haven't study a bit and knows what they are going to score. If today is my lucky day then I will score in the 400s, if there is a miracle that had to happen, then in 500s, but I am most certainly sure that I might end up in upper 200s to lower 300s. Now who can be so sure about getting such freaky percentiles ? Well I am, because I know my skills are pretty rusty and this is what I will be getting.

I am sure, this might be one of the most unusual posts you have ever read. Oh common at least give me some credit for writing this and admitting this to the World. Time to wrap up as I need to move out and head towards the fighting ring with no gloves or protective gear, forget about the practice as I haven't done any for this match.That's it folks, I move towards the fighting arena where the GMAT is waiting to slaughter me. I can't ask for your best wishes as luck favors the prepared mind and I am not prepared ....not for this one and most certainly not today.

I will fight back !! (with GMAT or with myself that I haven’t decided).