Thursday, August 26, 2004

chicken with vegetables

for my delivered dinner lately i'm really into this chinese dish that is just chicken and vegetables.

most dishes here are "veg" (vegitarian), and if you want non-veg, usually there is just meat and sauce, and some bread or rice if you're lucky. hello, not a balanced meal! that's why chicken WITH VEGETABLES is so amazing. but every time i order it i have to argue with the guy on the phone for like 5 minutes to get him to agree to NOT put gravy on it.

i'm always like "dry please"
and he goes "but it comes with gravy sir"
and i'm like "no, dry"
and he's like "you can have white or brown or green gravy"
and i'm like "NO GRAVY"
and he's like "no, it will be bland sir"

blah blah blah! it's actually really good. they put really good spices in it, and the veggies are really fresh.

i want to order it for dinner tonight. they'd better not fucking run out of vegetables like the lamb burger place. who does that? fucking run out of vegetables ...

trucker strike

the truckers in india have been on strike for a few days. at first it was awesome -- no traffic! my daily commute time was halved. but now it starts to suck because food is getting more expensive ... and more scarce. today i ordered a fresh green salad. the guy was like "no, no vegetables." i had a lamb burger instead :-(

my lg tv

is so fucking smart. its autoprogramme feature is brilliant. how does it recognize a good signal? just when i thought i was totally blown away, i went to the last page of the menu only to find that the tv includes a video cricket game. way to tailor your product to the market. in "lg cricket cup", you can play india versus pakistan, south africa, australia, sri lanka, or england. haha, who ever heard of a tv with an integrated video game??

wednesday night

last night was kai's farewell. i of course got smashed. then everyone's cell phones stopped working, so i couldn't get in on anyone's cab, and i took an auto-rickshaw home. i caught a bad cold, so now i am hungover *and* sick. skipping work today, not that anyone would care ...

meanwhile kai bit my finger last tuesday and it is still black + blue.

Friday, August 13, 2004

goals

i can now define the first element of my framework: my goals (broadly construed). i want to contribute to rising quality of life worldwide ...

- by enabling better communication and transportation links, on local, national, regional, and intercontinental scales

- by contributing to the development and promotion of life-enhancing products, services, and facilities

it's nice to finally articulate that. i hope it doesn't sound as clichéd as i imagine it could ... comments?

Sunday, August 08, 2004

saturday night

my roommate wolfram and i thought we were going to retire early after our long day shopping saturday. we were finishing up dinner at 21.30 when kai and brenden showed up. of course, they were going out and of course we had to go with them.

we first went to a private house in frazertown (across the city) for some wine and other assorted beverages, and were already tipsy when we reached 1912, a bar and lounge on mg road. 1912 serves cocktails by the pitcher. one pitcher of mojito and 840 rupees later, i was drunk.

in my inebriated state, i found myself for only the second time in my life attracted to a woman. the french sophie was cute, sassy, and intelligent and i began to hit on her with reckless abandon. of course the magic ended (for me) when she freaked out after she thought she had lost her bag, but actually hadn't. it's probably just as well; otherwise, i might have ended up making a fool of myself, or hurting her later.

the second remarkable event at 1912 occurred while i was impersonating an indian beggar harassing brenden. i moved my hands to my mouth, expressing hunger, and began to poke him when he did not give me money. i of course invaded his space, as beggars do here, but crossed the line when i grabbed his crotch. whoops, i got a bit too into the role.

upon leaving 1912, wolfram, kai and brenden headed to club x while i joined a small group at a nearby restaurant, mostly because i thought i might be interested in one of the guys who was there.

several of us continued to a spot on mg road where tea is served at one's vehicle. just as we had ordered, a police van showed up to harass everyone and disperse the crowd. we of course drove further down the road to another tea-serving spot. the tea was delicious and, at 3.00, a welcome pick-me-up.

i left the tea group, taking an auto-rickshaw to club x. of course the bouncers made entry difficult, as i was not accompanied by any girls. i insisted that i was meeting friends inside, and the thugs eventually relented ... but charged me 500 rupees for the priviledge of entering. (i would later discover that my friends paid only 150 each.)

the ignominious gender discrimination did not end there, as i was refused entry to the dance floor, which was designated for "couples" ... until some friends were able to round up a female friend. of course, later, when the girls had were off the dance floor and i was dancing alone, a bouncer physically ejected me from the floor. >:-o

the best part was during the ride back home. at around 6.45, we came to the scene of a serious accident. two cars and a bus had collided, and a huge crowd had formed around the vehicles. most of the crowd was barefoot. they were stepping on shards of glass from the cars' windshields, fresh blood from those involved in the accident, and streams of gasoline flowing from the bus's punctured fuel tank. great situation. go india.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

four factors to consider

i need to consider my desires and aspirations in shaping my framework. i should also mention that i derive much pleasure from saying "my framework". :-D

four factors:

i want to progress. my life has been marked by rich experiences and rapid advancement. i do not want to slow down this process of personal growth, and would rather hope to accelerate it.

i want to have fun. how miserable my life would be without fun. given how much fun i've had over the past several years, having fun during less than 50% of my time awake would mark a major deterioration of my quality of life. (i define "fun" as being happy and enjoying what i'm doing at a given moment.) one consequence of this factor: i need to work in a position with a lively, amicable workplace culture.

i don't want to waste my skills. most of my professional and academic experiences have only exploited a very small part of my skill set. i do not expect to find a position that will exploit all my skills, but i do want a position that will exploit many diverse skills - social, linguistic, creative, analytical and technical - and i want a position that helps to define a life direction that has the potential to exploit all my skills.

i don't want to waste my time. i enjoy being challenged and highly productive. i do not want to spend my day surfing the web because i do not have enough work to stimulate me.

direction needed

i have been sad lately ... over the past eleven months or so. not getting any job offers from fall recruiting, or any fellowships, discouraged me. more profoundly, though, ruminating on my rejections has led me to realize that i don't have any real direction in my life now, and don't know what direction i want to put it in. it is perhaps fortunate that i was not successful in my job and fellowship applications, as an offer could have given my life direction without my fully considering the choice i had.

as i've posted before, now is the first time that i have a real and difficult choice of what to do with my life. but only now am i realizing that, without making that choice, i am lacking any true direction, and i thus feel a lack of purpose for my life ... which is why i need to establish some direction. hopefully by the end of august. :-)

yet, i have been terrified of establishing direction. i fear that, by establishing one direction, i will necessarily forgo other directions ... and thus quite possibly shortchange my future. i have to overcome this fear and make a decision. i need to create a framework that will allow me to look forward to my future without worrying that i made a sub-optimal decision.