Sourberry?

2 of my closest friends were praying yesterday night .. "It might be the last time I talk to you on this cell" said one, during a call last night. "I'm calling all those with whom I talk most and letting them know this tragedy". After listening to her cry her heart out for some time and still not understanding a word, I checked it out, and (I admit) secretly smiled. The Blackberry, a ghastly device which lets you check email and schedule appointments and, I suspect, feeds you when you are hungry -- was in a patent infringement lawsuit and may be shut down!! Ha! Bye bye irritating device which makes my friends check email when we are enjoying some coffee!

Well, she must be rejoicing right now. The Blackberry has not yet been banned or something, though its just sooner or later now. Oh the anticipation is killing me!

New improved .. hyperthreading technology!! Buy buy!!

The deployment went smoothly and finally the first major project for our team is live. Its a victory of sorts .. with our project manager having pulled off a coup so to speak.

Coming right after the deployement was the news that our department is upgrading our desktops with faster, sleeker, meaner and god knows what morer machines. I was like what?? We probably have the best desktops in the industry. Upgrades are fluid and you can easily request for more RAM or hard disk space or whatever. I mean I currently have a processor powerful enough to design other processors, more than 2 gigs of RAM and hard disk space enough for a family of 4 to sleep in. Ooh ooh .. my new processor runs 200 Mhz faster than my old one!!! Paaartttyyyyy!!!!! I don't need a stupid hyper threading extreme processor to replace my current one. Whats funny is that most people think its an achievement for them if they get super-powerful machines. Give me a bigger bonus instead.

Shitty Supplements?

Guys and supplements - its like guys and cars or guys and breasts. Well maybe not the last one that one, I can understand; but what is this obsession with taking 'protein powder' or 'whey protein' or 'creatine' to bulk up your body? Don't they get all the nutrition they need from a normal, healthy diet? Aren't the side effects of artificial bulking powders a deterrent? A guy I know took some weird supplement and couldnt shit for a week. The doctors at the hospital told him to lay off the supplements or he has a high risk of colon cancer or something. And who likes artificially bulked up muscles anyways?

No Habla Espanol?

I just had the most amazing 8 days in ... Spain!!!!
The whole trip was just ... breathtaking and filled with the wonders that I have come to realize that only Europe can provide. Now, the US just seems drab with all the dirty snow and cold weather. This not being the 'propah' season to visit, Spain was coldish and drab too .. but in a different kind of way ;-)
With my local plans being shreded to pieces by ungrateful friends who think they need to spend more time with people they love .. people who were just on the 'like' level were cast aside. My roommate's cousin lives in Barcelona and she persuaded me to tag along (Thanks Nish!!). I knew the visa stamping from Canada was a good thing to do!!

More on this later. For now we both need to wade through the tremendous amount of junkmail and promotional crap letters received in the past fortnight or so!

Appeasing the vodka gods

Every single time we friends decide to meet up for the long weekend (which is every long weekend) we end up going to some local bar in the city where we are meeting and drinking ourselves silly. Everyone drinks - guys, gals - and everyone drinks themselves silly. I am not really really worried as thats about the only time I drink these days, but still I am concerned that we end up drinking a lot every time. I brought this up the day after - when everyone was rid of their dry mouths and groggy heads.
We are all again meeting for christmas and have promised to go easy this time. The vodka gods will not be pleased.

Why so?

We went to a Hindi movie this weekend. Sometimes, when my friends persuade me enough, I go and try to enjoy the occasional Bollywood flick. It was horrible. Not the movie itself, but the whole movie watching experience. Why is it that the average Indian male will behave properly when he goes to watch a hollywood movie .. no whistles, no catcalls, no calling out to friends sitting 5 seats across or even no whispering. But send him to a hindi movie and you will surely get any of the above. This was not a one time experience. We have always observed it and this time it was too much to bear.

So whats your colour?

Everyone I see these days wears a bracelet. Its the 'in' thing. Wear a bracelet to support your cause or charity. If you don't don a bracelet you obviously don't give to charities and are a very bad person. Bad MediumLatte!

I hope you get what I am saying. Those plastic/rubber bands that people wear. Yellow for the Lance Armstrong foundation, Blue for the children's hospital, Red to support research in breast cancer, Green for some environmental cause. These days I find it hard to even keep up with the colours and their meanings. And after all there are only so many colours right? My grouse is that you can't go up to the person and ask .. "Hey, what is that band you are wearing?" They will look aghast and frown at you as if you just asked why we need to be considerate of our fellow citizens. Then the rumours in office will start and soon you will be 'the girl who doesnt give to charity'. No Sir. Don't even make that mistake. Oh and theres another rule. If you are a gilr you have to have the badn to support breast cancer (I found this out the hard way). If you are a guy and don't support Lance Armstrong, god help you.

I can understand this to some level - people feel proud to show that they are contributing to society. In a world where its just not enough to play your part, but you need to let other people know that you are playing your part - this can be understood. But whats with the multiple bands? I mean sheesh!! I have seen guys with a yellow band on one hand and a pink one on another. So now are we out doing each other? Is there a competition to see who donates more? Or atleast shows they donate more?

I'm thinking of wearing bangles to work next week and telling them some crap about how these are 'bands' for supporting cottage industires in India. That'll keep them quiet.