I find religion and God fascinating. Weird, incomprehensible, irrational, and at times unbelievably annoying but still, facinating. I don't understand it and I don't want it. Nobody has been able to give me a convincing reason for either religion or god. Religion as tradition, religion as support, religion as don't-as-questions-it-just-is, and religion as a-way-of-life - I don't get it. I also don't get why people don't recycle religions. Most religions that are around today have been around for hundreds and sometimes, thousands of years - how are they still relevant. This generally provokes the response that people are more moral (what ever that means) and socially conscious when they think that the crow is going to poke their eyes out if they lie, for instance. (Here is another thing I don't get. Why does the crow poke my eye out when I lie? I'm not lying with my eyes, am I?) Does this mean that aethists lie, steal, cheat and murder their way through life? Not making sense.

 

Richard Dawkins' latest book ' The God Delusion' sounds interesting.

 

In a conversation with a scientist who believed in God and who said, "Science can't disprove the existance of God", "There's an infinite number of things that we can't disprove," Dawkins said. "You might say that because science can explain just about everything but not quite, it's wrong to say therefore we don't need God. It is also, I suppose, wrong to say we don't need the Flying Spaghetti Monster, unicorns, Thor, Wotan, Jupiter, or fairies at the bottom of the garden. There's an infinite number of things that some people at one time or another have believed in, and an infinite number of things that nobody has believed in. If there's not the slightest reason to believe in any of those things, why bother? The onus is on somebody who says, I want to believe in God, Flying Spaghetti Monster, fairies, or whatever it is. It is not up to us to disprove it."

 

Do you believe in God? Why?

 

And the next question is, why do you, when you disbelieve in all Gods but your God, give respect to other Gods? Why is it not permissible to disrespect another chap's God when it is ok to make fun/disrespect just about everything else? Does that stem from a fear that maybe the other guy got it right and his is the real God after all and you don't want to piss off the chap who is going to let you in at the Pearly Gates or Paradise with 72 virgins? Or is it 76?

 

I don't have much to do today. I'm looking busy at the computer right now. So all's well in my world.

Do you have any superstitions? Lucky tie, Lucky shoes, unlucky hankies, pens, make up? I know a guy who has a lucky red shirt and has worn it on all important occasions since high school. I know a girl who has a lucky hanky. There are people who do things in only one way if something important is coming up. Apparently there are some people who won't say some things - and invite bad luck. Like emergency room doctors/nurses - I read somewhere that quiet and slow were bad words to use when there wasn't a crowd in the ER.

And then there is "Break a leg".

 

What are your weird rituals, superstitions? I don't have any. I feel like I am missing out on something.

Hilarious bloopers and typos - http://www.xcom2002.com/doh/

 

I went home yesterday and DIDN'T watch 24 because D wanted to watch it too and she came back from work only at eleven. So, I saw Ocean's Eleven (for the gazillionth time). Then I read some Jack Reacher and went to bed.

 

Today has been predictable so far. No work followed by some work followed by no work. Let's see what the rest of the working day (30 minutes) brings. Lunch - 2 paratas, buttermilk, palak panner. What did you have?

 

Vish - Don't hate me.

 

Ta.

Thank You for Smoking was hilarious. Brilliant movie.

 

I saw bits of The Departed but the mom and uncle and various aunts objected to the language, so we turned it off and watched some Sarah Jessica Parker movie. I forgot the name. It was bland. Watchable.

 

Diwali was fun. I was in Ranipet after a long time. The dog looks the same. He hasn't changed a bit since he was 2 years old. Or maybe I'm just not seeing it. Great food, great people, good movies, fire crackers, and a cute neice and a baby nephew. Good Diwali.

 

The dog freaked out at all the noise from the crackers, the neice freaked when the dog started barking, the baby started crying and we all paused, looked at each other and paused the DVD to attend to the kids. They were ok in a couple of minutes and we turned the TV back on. This happened both evenings.

 

We are a family of nerds. We (father, mother, uncle, 2 aunts, cousin, cousin's husband, grandmother, great aunt, sister and I) watched the National Spelling Bee on TV. For about 45 minutes. Until amma said it was time for lunch; then we dutifully turned the TV off and pigged out. I think we had sambar sadham, rasam sadam, veggies, parathas, banana chips, curd rice, pickles, thayir vadai and payasam for lunch that day. Yum. Have you had curd rice, mango pickle and banana chips? Mmm. I brought soan papdi back to hyd. The roomie brought Peda back from Mumbai. And the first season of 24. So I know what I'm going to be doing after work for the next couple of weeks.

 

I am so sleepy now. Have to go work. Have to.

A friend of mine is getting married in 114 days. How do I know? He has the number next to his name on Google Talk. The countdown started at 140 or some number in the vicinity. He actually has a countdown!

 

Another guy has "I believe in death, destruction, chaos, filth and greed" as his status message. Quotable quotes from American History X. Earlier his line was, "And somehow, life goes on" or something like that. He went from that to death and destruction.

 

Another guy has "are you sure??? do you really want to talk to me???" - punctuation, his.

 

Mine reads "Not Here". I am now, but I am not generally available for chat. You know, working. Or talking. Or reading. Or doing stuff that requires my full attention. Or not.

I had a very weird time last night. I went to bed at around midnight. Not tired or very sleepy but I need my sleep or I get very cranky and I needed to get up at 6 in the morning. Switched off the lights, drew the curtains, cursed the traffic, took clothes, books and other stuff off my bed and dumped them in various places around the room, changed and went to bed.

 

About 20 minutes later, I heard a weird singing. Some woman going 'aaaaaaaaa'. I opened my eyes, the singing stopped. I closed them, it started again. I wasn't freaked out. When I was a kid, I saw a movie where there was this ghost that wore clanging anklets that a guy would hear and for a very long time after that, I heard anklets at night. And I didn't sleep that night, the first time I saw Godzilla. The black and white one.

 

Anyway, the singing continued for a while and I dozed off. I got up some hours later and I heard voices. Outside my room. On the wrong side. On the side of the cemetary. I was very disoriented, and a little creeped out. I looked out of the window, there was no one there. I looked out of the other window, there were a couple of people talking loudly. Real People. Not just ectoplasm. (?)

I have a very bad cold and my ears seem to be blocked. Sounds seem muffled and I keep asking people if I am too loud. I can't tell. I am so careful about not shouting that everything I say comes out in a whisper. There has to be an easier way to do this.

 

I read Eoin (Sp?) Colfer's "The Wish List" and Soph, I liked it. I didn't expect to. It is about a 15 year old girl, a slightly older guy and a dog who die during a robbery. The guy ends up in hell but the girl has equal amounts of good and bad so she is sent back to earth as a ghost to fulfill the wishes of the old man they were in the process of robbing when they died. Throw in a silly St. Peter, a Game Boy obsessed Satan, a freaked out Beezelbub, a snarky old man, a sarcastic hologram and a boy-dog morph thingy, and it is all quite entertaining. Silly, yes, but a half hour well spent.

I just burnt my tongue with too-hot chocolate. You know why they gave it to me hotter than usually? Because I asked them to. And then I burnt my tongue. It is usually luke warm or very close to room tempareture. So I had this huge discussion with them and told them that it shouldn't be called "hot" chocolate if it isn't actually hot. It was more of a monologue. Anyway, my tongue hurts.

 

I have a sore throat. That hurts too. My lunch tasted weird. The others said their food was ok. So it was just me. Being weird.

I have been staring at the screen and trying to think of something to write for 30 minutes. I hate it when this happens. My mind went blank. 30 minutes of my life that I am not getting back. Sigh.

 

There is a singer called Nedelle. She has a nice voice. Nancy Sinatra-ish.

 

Ever wonder what makes a star a star? If you take away the cone bras and the slightly controversial songs, Madonna is not all that great a singer. So why is she famous? And why did the whole Kaballah (sp?) thing become newsworthy? Curious, I am. I saw True Blue on VH1 last night. It is such a bad song.

 

3 people I know are getting married on November 27th. Why that particular date, I wonder. Curiouser and Curiouser.

Dor was good. I was a little weirded out initially.. but it was good. Sreyas Talpade was amazing. Hilarious. Ayesha Takia didn't look old enough to be married. But Kukunoor himself.. How do I even start? I don't know what to say. I was squirming in all his scenes. It was embarrasing to watch him massacre his lines. Wasn't he a decent actor in his earlier movies? Anyway, what is with directors witing a role for themselves in their spories? IF he had to do that it should have been Clive Cussler style one scene rather than M. Night style through the movie. No speaking parts please. Couldn't he get someone who could act for the role? Someone who wasn't him? Sheesh. He was stone faced throughout the movie. Maybe the role asked for it but over kill in that case.

The Iqbal chap was really really good.

Now I have to go have coffee (mmmm) and breakfast.