On Autorickshaws and Cruelty

There I stand in the chill morning with my hand stuck unavailingly out. Waving desperately at the smug little black and yellow three-wheeled bugs as they speed by.
Either they are already occupied, and my lucky fellow commuter gives me a glance that is an equal mix of pity and self-congratulation.
Or there appears to be some mysterious, and probably world-saving, reason why the driver cannot venture onto MG Road. Maybe the space time continuum will be disrupted? Maybe aliens are tracking him and he must hurry to a place that is less populated to save human life? Maybe the terrible mutant contagion that infests an inconspicuous jar at his feet needs to be rushed to a secure facility... I don't understand why else my simple request is met with such loathing and derision.
As one goes through the ritual morning after morning, a shell of cynicism develops. A sneer appears on the face of the hardened auto catcher. She no longer shows her hurt at these brusque and disdainful brush-offs. She wears a mask of disinterest and sticks her hand out with impunity. Nothing can jar her anymore. The situation could not possibly be worse...
This morning could. Insult to injury type worse.
There I stood in the tried and tested auto catching stance. The regulation 5 autos went by...
It was the 6th that gave me a pain in the heart. The lone passenger nestled smugly in the back seat, at ease and totally self satisfied. I stared in envy as the huge bunch of bananas whisked by, smirking all the way. It's a-peel must have been better than mine.

Etch unto their own...

Miami Ink's Ami James had made a limited edition tatooed MotoRAZR! I know people who will WANT that.... It has a dragon wrapped all around the phone. Nice. Actually I want it too!

More on new people

Yeah so I was talking about the variety in music. Did I mention the variety in language?
I have a theory that every office has its own catch phrases and terminology. And as people switch jobs they carry the lingo with them. And then like all good memes the good phrases survive, spread and mutate. And so we end up speaking an advertising dialect all of our own that ensures that out non ad friends gradually understand us less and less.

Random post

Sitting in office and listening to old old music that I only vaguely know... It's nice to have new people in office. It really shakes up the i-Tunes pool!

Redone!

Given my blog a touch up. All bubbles and blue-green and happy happy joy joy. This is like repainting my bedroom walls. Same old junk with a new shiny look...

Depressed.

Babies are being bottle fed Bombay sea water and deities are being spoon fed milk...
Sigh. If string theory is to be believed, multiple universes are not just possible but probable. Our world apparantly includes somewhere between 10 to 26 dimensions, depending on the specific theory... But at this point I really doubt that any other reality is quite so bizarre.

sniff sniff snuffle

I got a cold... Not one of those discreet little sniffy colds where one just sneezes prettily into lace hankies. One of those full blown (pun intended) red nosed colds where I sound like a frog. And despite knowing full well that I have no need to inflict this information on net surfers at large, I feel the urge to complain... I have a COLD! :(

muahahahahahahahahaha!

I'm back!

Copy Cat

Got this from L who got it from A...
Then I did it my waaay!
tum tum tum tum...

8 Fictional Characters You'd Love To Hang Out With:

1. Willie Wonka (obvious reasons)
2. Susan Sto Helit
3. Jeeves
4. Eric Delko (C.S.I. Miami)
5. Nightwing
6. Hobbes
7. Howl (Howl’s Moving Castle – Diana Wynne Jones)
8. Treebeard (Actually any Ent…)

7 Celebrities You'd Invite To Dinner:

1. Terry Pratchett
2. Bill Watterson
3. Julia Roberts
4. Margo Chase (executive creative director of the Chase Design Group, LA)
5. Amanda Bynes
6. Georgette Heyer (since dead is ok…)
7 James Herriot (yes, post-humously. Also I assume this is who L and A were ref to.)

6 Things On Your Desk:

1. My cell phone
2. A nearly empty cup of office coffee
3. A bottle of water
4. An envelope of proof prints
5. A box with colour pencils and pushpins
6. Chapstick

5 Places You'd Like To Visit:

1. Paris
2. New Orleans (I wish I could have done this pre Katrina…)
3. Greece (All those hours spent on Classical Civ.)
4. Broadway
5. The set of a TV cooking show

4 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me:

1. I actually LIKE the crazy frog and think he’s funny!
2. I hate elevators and have to think thoughts of grass and wide open spaces every time I am forced to use one.
3. I prefer green tea to coffee. But it has to be made just right. Therefore I drink more coffee than tea.
4. I can’t stand melon smells.

3 Things You Wish You Had Right Now:

1. A HUGE bar of chocolate
2. The ability to disappear. Like Susan Storm.
3. Tiger for my eMac


2 Names You Wish Were Your Own:

1. Mrignaini – I almost got named that. I always wonder what I’d have been like then. I think one of those hot snooty babes. Okay not so much "wish were my own" as wonder how it would be...

Day Of The Week You Love The Most:

Thursday… It’s still week, but it seems so “weekend is close” - ish. Fridays are not the same since all work you get on it has to be finished off quick or you have to work on Saturday. Plus CSI comes on Thursday.

How meme!

Read Ra's blog and got tagged. Darn it. So here I am transmitting a unit of cultural information against my better judgment. With only a basic knowledge of memetics I can only claim that the meme, like genes, are sometimes recessive. ie: only the strong and practically necessary ones make the grade. Exhibit A: weird 60's hairdos.
Evolution kicks out the cultural mutations that are unlikely to affect actual survival. So with variation and selection defining the transmission, the rate of mutation is very high. Exhibit B: Chinese Whispers.
So Ra, all I'm saying is:

Mid 2004 - (current)
eMac, eMac, nyah nyah!

Bring on the lawyers kiddo...

oi!

Turns out that my Wallpaper a day blog is easier to do... but is also DONE! Sigh. Visited some dude at "wallpaperfree" on blogspot... Started three months before me! Same template even!! I just feel better cos I like my stuff better. His is all 3D stuff and looks like demo illustrations. Mine are mood things... Atleaast that's the theory...

Tangerine trees and marmalade skies...

The most amazing sunset this evening.... Purple and orange and gold. It had drizzled a bit earlier too, so everything reflected the colour of the sky back at you until it felt as if the entire world was glowing. They say that it's the pollution in the air that gives the sky that bright rusty orange. Maybe so... but it's still beautiful.

hahahahahaha!

Ok day got magically better after watching new bunny horror War of The Worlds! Really really like the Bunny Tom Cruise. Makes him look as dumb as the sofa jump version!
Music has been revamped too. "Tonight won't last forever - morning always comes too soon!"

Destiny was never up to me and it’s not my fault...

Aftertaste - Ben Lee.
I'm listening to all this depressing stuff after one of those never-again days. My i-Tunes playlist reads so:
Bed of Lies - Matchbox 20
Knockin on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan
Toy Soldiers - Martika
King of Sorrow - Sade
Life for Rent - Dido
How do you get that lonely - Blaine Larson
Cry - James Blunt
...................
hmmmm. I think I got to switch playlists.
Nurse, pass the David Guetta and Brad Carter. Quickly, she's slipping away...!

Second times the charm.

Trying again. Got a new blog! Wallpaper only....
Maybe it will be easier to maintain. Cos I change my wallpaper everyday anyway. All I got to do is remember to upload... This is still the official rant page. That will hopefully become the daily pick of the pics.
Just click the "wallpaper it up" link.

... and found

I just made myself "Lost" wallpaper and discovered three unexpected fans in office! Funny how quickly a television addiction can make you bond with people... Books don't do the same thing. Although I suppose that is because I tend not to be as obvious and vocal about my book addiction.... and I also personally suffer from low level book snobbery.
I expect that the majority of people will not know books that I've read. I don't usually meet people with the weird breadth and sheer diversity of my choice of reading matter. So I gravitate toward the familiar group who I know read the same stuff as I do. And, when I meet someone who doesn't fit in the likely Fellow Reader category, but can converse about the same vast range, I get surprised.
In my defense I am quite capable of making conversation even with Nancy Drew readers. I just talk about T.V. ah! The great leveler...

ok ok POSTING already

Yeah... popular demand. Out of fear for life and limb. From sheer boredom, maybe.
This month's post is actually a rant in disguise. Not a very good disguise mind you... bit like one of those blokes you see wearing groucho glasses and a pink nose lurking in corners at halloween parties. You know you got to stop staring but can't and then you're trapped in lame conversation about potatoes and their impact on our existance...
Ok. Wrong rant. Here's the right one:
Why Do Uneducated People Bitch About Kiddie Stuff???
Visit this link and you'll get some of my irritation. I mean there are people out there who watch kids tv with the sole intention of tearing into it. Does this not seem pointless to them? I mean who cares if there is a purple dino singing songs? Or a grown guy in a green rugby shirt acting like an ass to make a bunch of kids laugh? Welcome to the joys of The Remote Control! Change the stupid channel you brain dead progeny of a one eyed ptarmigan! Who's forcing you to watch television aimed at and designed for 3 year olds?
And it ticks me off more when these same bright sparks claim Calvin as their icon. Come on you dolts! Calvin will watch ANYTHING! The oatmeal offering to the idiot box ring any bells? Yeesh. Get some fresh air. Read a book once in a while. Oh, and watch some BBC or MTV or something. Four important letters to blokes who spend their afternoons in front of NickJr... ESPN!
Don't get me wrong... You want baby stuff and sing along cos you have a cold and are miserable? Sure, watch some kiddie cartoon. There are really well made ones. Good production. Good animation.
But then don't crib.
It's like eating Farex and complaining its not crunchy and spicy. Or wearing diapers instead of boxers.
Or maybe that's exactly what they do...

Then again, the early worm gets eaten....

Actual conversation overheard from the cubicle next door:

Girl (who has been talking movies non-stop): "...so she totally rocked. Who was that woman in "Passion of Christ?"
Guy1 : "Mary"
Guy2 : "VIRGIN Mary, mother f***er"

Love that last sentence....
I love working here!
Should remember that at 7:30am when it's pouring outside....

P.S.

Just incase any of you haven't seen this before... It's a short film of an alien singing from the portfolio of Victor Navone. He' now a senior animator at Pixar, but this was his early stuff. Once again I lust after the software... Sigh! :)

Where are your ears? ------------ [Johnny Storm to the Thing]

Right...
So finally watched it! Laughed myself silly! Totally madcap version that is as true to the comics that any superhero movie can be. I confess to always having a slight thing for the Human Torch. (Yes, yes, the peanut gallery are having a field day with the pun-ability of THAT statement.) And I think that the casting was actually really good. Very nice timepass after having spent another saturday at office. The effects were really really good. Invisible woman is so cleanly CGId... What I would give to spend a day playing with that kind of software.