Experiencing RSG life in the Verde Valley!

Yesterday, a talented trio ventured to Verde Valley (hidden wine country in AZ!). This trio included Rahulio and his friends. First, we hiked in the beautiful red rock area of Sedona. Originally, we were trying to hike in "devil's bridge." But, this area was a far drive from our current trail. Instead, we hiked for two miles in secret canyon trail. Hiking this trail was a good form of exercise during the day. After the scenic hike, we proceeded to Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards tasting room. This tasting room was in Jerome. Both Jerome & Sedona are cities in the Verde Valley region of Arizona. At the tasting room, Rahul enjoyed drinking the three white wines on tap. The white wines were from Graham County, AZ; California, and Cochise County, AZ. In addition, Rahul enjoyed being the "sommelier" with friends. Towards the end of the wine tasting experience, Rahul noticed a beautiful statue of Ganesh, the Hindu god of good luck. It was towards the entrance of the winery. It was part of the RSG life on a manic Monday. Furthermore, the acronym of RSG stands for Resilient, Sommelier, and Ganesh. Resilient is for hiking a different trail, instead of the planned one. Sommelier for helping his friends with pairing wine & food together. Finally, Ganesh is for the god that gave Rahul a huge amount of good fortune & luck. Au Revoir, mes amis!

Seeing Paul Oakenfold spinning some fly tracks!

Last night, RSG saw Paul Oakenfold again. Paul is one of the best DJ's in the world for EDM genre. EDM stands for electronic dance music. Paul came on at 12 am at "Wild Knight" nightclub in Scottsdale. Overall, it was a pretty good show. Tranzit was the first DJ to start spinning. He spinned for almost 2 hours. Then, the next DJ was Jon Pletachy. He was on for only 1 hour. When Paul came on, the whole crowd was bumping. The bottle service b****es were busy giving a lot of alcohol to their patrons. There were really cute Skyy Vodka women giving free shots of Pineapple vodka & lemonade. That was a good combination for Rahulio. In closing, it was great to see Paul in concert again. It is quite hard to fathom that Paul is 50 years old almost. He does not look like he's lived for 5 decades. Hope to see some other EDM musicians like Deadmau 5, or The Chemical Brothers. It was a great night, and a great way to celebrate super bowl weekend.

Super Bowl XLVII (47) is "The Harbaugh Bowl"!

Well, people should get their TV's ready for 2-3-2013. On February 3, 2013, two brothers will coach against each other. The two brothers are John & Jim Harbaugh, and this is the first super bowl meeting between both coaches. This Super Bowl is a special one, and RSG is calling it as "The Harbaugh Bowl!" Jim Harbaugh coached the SF 49ers to 13 wins, 4 losses, and 1 tie (note: this record includes two impressive playoff victories for SF over Green Bay & Atlanta). John Harbaugh coached the Baltimore Ravens to 13 wins, and 6 losses (note: this record includes three stunning playoff victories for Baltimore over Indianapolis, Denver, and New England). But, the Ravens are undefeated against the 49ers in their last 3 (& only) meetings. In Super Bowl 47, the 49ers are favored by 3.5 points. With rookie QB Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers could pull off another thorough victory on Super Bowl Sunday. For RSG, hope the Ravens can pull out another victory. In terms of entertainment at the Super Bowl, Beyonce (& Destiny's Child) will perform at halftime in New Orleans. The commercials will be rocking as usual (thanks to hottie Kate Upton doing an ad for Mercedes Benz!), and Alicia Keys is doing her rendition of the national anthem before the game. Hope the game is a great one!

2013 Academy Awards nominations

Yesterday, Seth McFarlane and Emma Stone announced the academy awards nominees. The clear leader with 12 Oscar Nominations is "Lincoln." Next, the "Life of Pi" had 11 nominations. One of RSG's favorites, "Django Unchained", got 5 oscar nominations. But, Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed for Best Supporting Actor by Hollywood. Another snubb was Ben Affleck not getting nominated for "Argo." The movie received 7 oscar nominations. As for other good movies, "Silver Linings Playbook" got 8 oscar nominations as did "Les Miserables." With the Academy Awards show happening on February 24, the awards season is in high gear in Hollywood. On Sunday, the "Golden Globes" will take place in Beverly Hills. This awards show is called "Hollywood's biggest cocktail party." For any movie buff, this time of the year is pretty exciting. Hope some of my favorite movies win some surprising awards. Au Revoir from the raving Hollywood G.!

Do You Know Your Ancestry?

My last post in 2012 is about knowing one's ancestry. There is a website, ancestry.com, and you can learn about your ancestry at that URL. URL is uniform resource locator, or global web address (in layman's terms). My friend, Amit, mentioned that he has a friend that works at ancestry.com. Ancestry.com is the main topic of discussion today. Ancestry.com is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company's stock symbol is ACOM, and their headquarters is in Provo, UT. The company has a market cap. of over $1 billion, and the website is the world's largest resource for family history. The website is known for being a great portal for genealogy. Many of my friends would mention that my family history traces back to India. They are correct, but RSG wishes it was from Italy. You know the ganpuleone family! Anyways, let's get back to the topic at hand. When Rahul searched for his parents & family history on ancestry.com, his parents and other pertinent information showed up. It was incredible to see how accurate ancestry.com is. The family tree was displayed, and it was very correct. In closing, ancestry.com is a great website for learning about genealogy. Genealogy is an account of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or from older forms. For next time, Rahul hopes that you can learn more about your ancestry in 2013. Because at the end of a long day, it is best to remember what you learned. The more you learn, the more knowledge you gain. True words, indeed!

Long live the Gutterball!

Well, Rahulio was at the bowling alley on a Saturday night. What!? RSG does not bowl that often, but his buddy (the Nittany) wanted to kill some time. Big Daddy and the Sparta were quite interested in the sport too. All of us drove to the lanes. The Nittany won most of the games, while Sparta and Big Daddy duked it out for second place during the contests. Rahul chilled with his friends, and he kept watching the music videos on the projector screens. At 10:00 pm, the music came on and the lanes had additional lights for "cosmic bowling experience." The DJ played rap music exclusively, but there was some additional rock or country tunes. On another topic, one of the highlights of the night was "the gutterball." The Sparta threw a record 14 gutterballs. He was in rare form. Another highlight of the night was the many tattoos on the beautiful women in the next lane. The woman would have looked prettier without their skins, pieces, or sleeves (names for tattoo art). The final highlight is RSG's good memory on display. He remembered Mike Posner's songs, and RSG is now known for having a "good hard drive." Remember that a good hard drive is the equivalent of good memory. In closing, it was a great time at the bowling alley. It was an exciting way to spend a Saturday night in December 2012. Hope this final month of 2012 is not replete with drama (from work, relationships, or other situations), and with happiness instead.

Finding bars about "007" in The Cosmopolitan Hotel (Las Vegas, NV)

Well, RSG spent Thanksgiving 2012 in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is the Meadows in Spanish. Also, RSG went to nine different hotels, three different nightclubs, and 3 major artifacts. The nine different hotels were the Venetian, The Paris Las Vegas, The Cosmopolitan Hotel, The Aria hotel, the Vdara hotel, Caesar's Palace, the Palazzo, the Tropicana, and the Bellagio. The three major artifacts were the top of the Eiffel Tower, the Mob Attraction experience museum, and the Madame Tussaud's wax museum (in the Venetian). The three nightclubs that Rahulio frequented were Pure (in Caesar's Palace), Lavo Lounge (in Palazzo), and Tao (in the Venetian). When RSG strolled into the Cosmopolitan Hotel, he could not help but notice bars with names such as "Bond", "Vesper", "Chandelier", and "Queue." The Vesper is the original drink that James Bond has in Casino Royale, the first novel by Ian Fleming. The bartender at the bar asked me "hey, rahul, do you want to try the vesper?" Unfortunately, it was too strong of a drink whether it's shaken (not stirred). Bond Bar has Bond girls in it, and it's replete with LED lights. Tres chic! Furthermore, The "Chandelier" has about 5 different bars in it. There is a great "chandelier" scene in "Die Another Day." Finally, the queue bar is for the word "queue", but the bartender was mentioning it had to with "Bond." Yet, he was wrong as the bar is by the waiting area for the Marquee lounge nightclub (the premiere nightclub and one of the most expensive in Las Vegas). In closing, Sin City was fun (but it's not going to be done alone by RSG again). Doing vegas solo is something that can be done (only if you know how to be frugal). Being frugal was not part of the RSG equation this past weekend. KB (Keep Banging)!