I haven't written in a long time. Have a major case of work and writer's block.

 

It is still not over.

Don't know if I will write. Might start over. Chronicling books and movies and food. Don't really want to write.

 

Blah.

I am back. 2 weeks in the US. Lots and lots to drink. The first 3 days I had red wine, white wine, red, white, red... Then it varied. Margaritas, mohitos, honey wine, german beer, italian beer, american beer. You would think I was a real tippler.

 

Yesterday, I hurt all over. Then I had a huge lunch and about an hour later, life was ok. Then I went home and watched LOTR 1 and 2 on my new laptp in my newly air conditioned room. Hmm. Then I played scrabble with D and lost by a few points. I really suck at it. The only reason I didn't totally embarass myself was because I got Q and Z and X and managed to make triple word/letter scores on them. Phew.

 

Anyway, I like the US. Whatever little I saw. Elbow space (except on airplanes), buses that have time tables (gasp!) and come on time, wide open spaces, clothes that fit me, awesome food (but way too large servings) and maps! I have discovered a new love for maps. I love maps. Can you imagine navigating chennai with a map? Crazy.

 

Anyway, food. I had italian a couple of times (it tastes pretty much like it does in India. I was surprised.), mexican (ditto), lebanese (not so much), ethiopean (first time!) and american. Yum. I liked everything I had. One good reason not to live in the US. You'd need a crane to lift me out of the house.

 

My cousin asked me which place I liked better - Dallas or San Francisco. I told him I'd have to think. He was very offended. Apparenlty Dallas doesn't have any personality, being all flat and brown and dusty. Ok.

 

I found one thing weird. So many people whom I asked directions didn't speak english. So, I got into a lot of buses and trains that were going in the wrong direction. Not fun at all.

 

More later. Going to watch Cheeni Kum today.

 

Somebody, get me another job.

On the way to work today, I saw guy wearing a T Shirt with this - "I'm with Stuped ->"

 

Last night, we went to a restaurant we hadn't yet been to. Food was good, as usual, we all ate too much. I learnt that zafran meant saffron and had a very sweet Zafran lassi. But the food was good. Definite visit again.

 

I was going to say something else. I had it all written in my head and when I started typing this out - poof, all gone.

 

More later.

First post in a week.

My brain hurts.

There is an elevator here that scares the shit out of me. It is very slow, creeeeeeeaaaaaks and sometimes randomly stops between floors. Everybody panic. I still don't take the stairs - I'm lazy. Big surprise.

The funny thing is, the other 2 elevators have been shut down "for repairs" for the past 2 months. This one hasn't been "repaired" even once since it started getting weird. I wonder what it takes. A plunge from the 3rd floor (which is as high as this building gets)? Ok, maybe not funny.

There is a Cocaine energy drink? Seriously? Also, does cocaine give energy? Why call an energy drink Cocaine? Coke and Crack were already taken? How did they not see this coming? And, what did it taste like?

"Of course, we intended for Cocaine energy drink to be a legal alternative the same way that celibacy is an alternative to premarital sex..."

Anyway, our yucky vending machine is broken. So no coffee all day. No coffee sucks. Give me coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

Some random guy talking on the phone just walked ast my cubile and gave me this huge, all teeth gleaming, grin. I was sitting. He looked down and grinnnnnned. Scary. He had Beatles hair.
Some guy sent me a forward. FYI & A apparently means For your information and attention/action. I HATE ACRONYMS. DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE
Ugh.

The water suddenly tastes like paint.

The Power of Suggestion

Shrek 2 on TV last night.

 

Green poop this morning.

2 false fire alarms in the past week.

 

I don't think anybody would even get up from their seats the next time; then there would really be a fire. Boy, meet wolf.

The world is going to the dogs. Among other things.

 

I turned on the TV before leaving for work and I saw that Boris Yeltsin had died, First thing that came to my ming was Birthmark! That was Gorbachev, wasn't it?

 

Life sux. Hyderabad is hot.

 

Still blocked.

 

So much work. Drowning.

 

Anybody reading the new Tolkein? Did you know that they called Silmarillion Sellamillion when it first came out? I wonder if Children of Hurin will be good. Reviews haven't been great.

 

My Co.'s annual results came out. Everything was great. Everybody is very happy. Everybody did great. Everybody is on the top of the world. Everybody but me. I think I am biologically inclined to be morose when people around me are happy.

 

I want to do something. Anything. Help.

 

The only thing I look forward to is sleep. It is very depressing.

 

 

Weekend!

 

My work PC is super tempramental. It crashed 3 times in one week, 2 months ago. And today, it was stuttering and blinking. Painful. It is so bad that of the 15 numbers that I have scribbled on the whiteboard in my cubicle, 8 are helpdesk numbers. 8. Ofcourse, 4 of them never pick up the phone or are always busy and a couple have no idea what to do, whatever the problem is, but I can generally get someone to a) tell me what to do when the comp gives up or b)come and fix it.

 

One of these days, it is going to die. And I will not miss it. To hell with it.

 

We have to fill out this thing every week. About what we did all week and submit it to the project manager. Ideally, we keep the program running and add a line whenever we "change tasks". I have 3 months pending. The last time I filled it out, I did 5 months in 2 hours. It is really tiring. Speaking of tiring, Tired.com is apparently a very popular website, or so Slate.com says. I dont have the link, but they have an interesting article. Go check it out.

 

I lost my funny.

I am bored. Not a new state of affairs for me.

Vish - that's why I haven't been writing. Nothing to write AND a major case of writer's block.

Will write when the block goes away. If.

I have to cut my toe nails. Thought you might like to know.

Need to wax my arms. Immediately. I look like a close relative of the Indian Black Bear. So.

A lot of billboards in town have nothing on them. They are bare, metal skeletons of their former colourful glory. Seriously. Awesome winds last week, blew a lot of stuff away. And since I have a graveyard outside my windows, I get it all, unobstructed by buildings. "Open the windows and let the air force come in." Indeed.

Not so awesome, one was toppled. It fell on an icecream kiosk and (the rumour is) it killed the guy in the kiosk. It has been a week since that happened, and all the metal is yet to be removed.

I saw Bheja Fry yesterday. A lot of fun, if you are in the mood for some leave-your-brain-at-home silly comedy. There is no real story and everything happens in two rooms and in one evening. But still, great time pass. Of the 5 of us who went for the movie, only two of us liked it.

I also saw Eragon, about two weeks ago. What a sad, terrible movie. The dragon was awesome, though.

The rains are here and the evenings are awesome, as long as you don't get caught in the rain. I lost my umbrella today. Last year, I lost 3 umbrellas. Apparenlty, the rains will stop sometime next week and we will have another month of horrible summer and then the rains will start again. Not looking forward to the heat. Heard that Delhi is 40 degrees already. Shudder.