Last Term

Happy Christmas folks.

My last term has begun, and the courses I have signed up for are the lightest I could find. International Business Ethics & Leadership and Team Building. The capital letters are not of my doing. All of last term, I cribbed about the compulsory Ethics course. Now I will crib about this one. I could have takencourses on Neural Networks or Insurance but nooooooooooooooooooo.... I took Ethics and Leadership. Hopefully a peaceful and workless time. But look forward to lots of bitching and cribbing. I wonder how International Ethics is different from regualr old Ethics? Maybe they'll kill us with more pseudo psychology and -isms because this is an elective... Hip Hip Hurray!! (Which is apparently an old Hebrew war cry of sorts).

I saw a movie called The Ninth Gate. Johnny Depp. It was very predictable and lackluster. No fun at all. I also saw Hanuman. It was very cute. And Pandavas. Very not cute. And Platoon. I didn't see the whole thing. Got bored partway and got a craving for Hot Shots! I loved both part 1 and 2 of Hot Shots.

I have Lord of War and King Kong. I don't think I'll see either.

Cheerios folks. Be good, have fun, make lots of resolutions this New Year. We'll compare.

BTW, I'm going to Chennai for Pongal. More Yay!

clandestine service careers

This month's Economist has an ad from the CIA, in their Executive Focus.
"Possibly the most challenging job in the world".

All candidates blah blah blah several personal interviews, medical and
psychological exams, aptitude testing, a polygraph interview, and an
extensive background investigation.

.. fast paced, high impact challenges in worldwide intelligence
collectiobn efforts on issues of US foreign policy interest and national
security concern.

For more info blah blah visit: www.cia.gov

I wonder if Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne, George Smiley and James Bond
answered similar ads...

People have said weird things in classes, during lectures, presentations and the like. Some 'Oh My God' moments, some 'Don't say things like that when I'm drinking' stuff, some 'I can't believe he just said that' and a few 'Did he just say what I think he said?'. Unfortunately, I haven't kept a record of all these spew-worthy sayings. I did write down a few.

- strong purchase intention to buy

- ... mainly it was predominantly dominated by ...

- cost of the price

- flexibility is not as rigid

- people should not buy what they don't want to buy

I can't remember the other things that induced stomach ache causing laughter spells. Sadly.

I had a class just now. Planning IT Enabled Organisations, fondly called PITEO. I don't know why "Planning". We don't learn much about planning, but we do get a lot of IT and Enabling. Today's classes were full of documentation. I got such a headache from just knowing the types of documents that exist, I don't know what I'll do if I have to actually deal with them.

I am so not ready for real life.

What a tangled web we weave...

Not getting short listed for interviews ranks in the Top 5 Yucky Things To Happen To Me list. Add a surprise end term exam, rumours of corruption of those in power, my clothes not drying and 2 grasshoppers in the toilet and my day is officially ruined.

I had bad, bland noodles a while ago and it is making my stomache cry out in pain and agony.

I want a vacation.

I need a break.

I get more work.

The Times of India had this article about how humans share 98% dna with chimps and 60% with chickens and fruit flies. It was nice to know that I was more chimp than chicken. I had always wondered...

The Games have Begun!

I had a very painless interview today. My first ever job interview!!!! I feel so grown up! Damn. In less than 6 months, I am going to be WORKING? Paying taxes? having deadlines? Oh my god. Shit. Deep breaths.

Today is a big day for me. And so, I am going to celebrate my coming of age with a huge bar of Dairy Milk Roasted Almonds and Lepon Doyen "100% Veg Healthy Always" Cookies.

Speaking of Dairy Milk - they have a Tiramisu bar. New, I think. I saw it for the first time last week. Or maybe, new to bhubaneswar. Anyway, it was yummy. Not like any tramisu I have ever had, but yummy still.

Damn. I still can't get over this. I am 22 years old. I have to grow up some time.

Irrespective of whether or not I get the job I was interviewed for, today was weird. In a good way.

Bye folks.

Movie Spoilers Ahead

Maybe it was the bad sound and bad camera print and lack of coke and popcorn, but the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was terrible. Not bad, not ok, terrible. It was as bad as The Prisoner of Azkaban.

There were many things bad about the movie.

The way it started, for one thing. They completely cut out the World cup! Maybe the bootleg version didn't have it but still... And I didn't see Winky at all. Not once. No Ludo Bagman either. WTF?

The dragons were good. The underwater rescue was ok. The maze was totally fucked up. No sphinx, no Boggart, no dementor, nothing. I am going to see it when I go to Chennai again. Get a good print. I am hoping all of this got cut out from the version I saw. Hoping it will make the DVD version.

Voldie looked ok. A little too grey. Cho does not look like that. No freakin' way. The Weasleys need to get hair cuts. Cedric looked good. All handsome and Hufflepuffy. Ron's dress robes were hilarious. The Dark Mark was awful. Itwasn't even green! Voldemort's speech after his resuscitation is one of the best things about the book and it was barely there! They showed only Lucius Malfoy. No Dolohov, Nott, Crabbe, Doyle, et al. I have read the books way too many times.

It was as if they took all the good parts of the books, which actually gave it substance and deliberately cut it out. I am very upset.

My version of the movie is a lot better. When I read the book, I visualised the whole thing. This movie does not live up to that.

Neville is way taller than Harry, even taller than Ron. It's weird. he's not even plump anymore. Draco Malfoy is his platinum self. The Amazing Bouncing Ferret scene atleast made the cut.

The weird dance thingy that the Beauxbaxtons do, and the staff stomping thing that the Durmstrangs do... where did that come from? And since when was the french school all female and the bulgarian school all male?? The guy has taken way too much creative license. I don't mind if they take a book, change everything and make a good movie. It's only when they change a good book into a bad movie that I have a problem.

I also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Thats an example of a good book made into an entertaining movie. Dumb yes, but it atleast helped pass time. Maybe the good print and sound helped.

The omlet I had during breakfast was uncomfortably crunchy. It felt like I was chewing on cement...

p.s. I have given up on titles for posts.

I have had too many Consumer Behavior classes this week. My brain is going numb. The man says the same thing over and over again, and he seems to think we are all to dumb to understand. Not that we are all very intelligent, but what he has to say dosen't require even a 2 digit IQ. A frog or a stone could understand him.

I saw the first 20 mins of Saw. It took gross to new levels. I can't believe people saw Saw and then saw Saw 2 too. (Wasn't that a nice sentence!)

My grossness-tolerance seems to be very low these days.

I saw bits and pieces of a Russel Peters show. For those of you who don't know, he is a Indian-Canadian (or is it Canadian-Indian?) comedien. He's not very funny after the first 15 mins. He makes the same sexist, racist jokes all the time. They are funny, but not for 50 mins at a stretch.

What motivates you to study? Fear? The utter joy of gaining knowledge? Competition? The threat of Pain if you don't? Lack of better things to do?

My throat feels like somebody is rubbing it non-stop with sand paper and then pouring alcohol on the scratched area. It hurts when I swallow, when I breathe, when I speak and even if I don't do any of the above.

My nose was hurting yesterday. The bridge of my nose. I didn't know it could hurt there. When I told someone, he told me it was probably solidified snot. Ugh. I didn't need to hear that when I was having dinner (Which was otherwise very good, both food-wise, company-wise and conversation-wise).

Tada.