Alright I know, two posts in a ROW about computer stuff. Pretty nerdy. But Microsoft is releasing touch computing which is basically the stuff that you saw Tom Cruise use in Minority Report. Once you see it, tell me you don’t drop your jaw in amazement.

Edit: Here’s the actual Microsoft site for it that was launched, and the videos are shorter and even more spiffy.

“Isn’t Wentworth Miller hot? God, if I had him, I wouldn’t even let him get out of bed to pee he’s so goddamn hot.”
-Deja

Alright so I’ve been back in America and I’ve been having a bunch of fun. I’ve got a website to finish up (still waiting for the client to get back to me on his thoughts on the design), and then… well… I’ve been hooked on Prison Break. (Thank you Vinni.) Apparently the main guy in there, Wentworth Miller, is muy hot, and Vinni’s been addicted to him since.. ah hell, I don’t know. Anyway, I realized there’s sort of a downside in watching the show though: You end up talking like you’re in prison if you watch it for too long.

We’ve been watching pretty much all of Season 1, and we’ve gotten to Episode 13 or so. This morning, I ask Vinni, “Hey Vinni, can you hand me the lighter?” And she retorts back, “Oh yeah? What do I get for it.”

Errm…..

I’ll get you some cigs from the guards?

So far I’ve only been addicted to LOST and Heroes. Now comes Prison Break. I’ve become a slave to the boob-tube.
Out for now.

Hahahaha. Totally kidding. I know that a bunch of you in India are just waiting for the moment when I’ll actually say it and mean it, but that point hasn’t occurred, yet. But I definitely am starting to miss the people there more and more, and the inability to just call someone up to talk.

In the meantime, I actually expected myself to be a bit more productive in these first few days. Sure I know, I’ve got jet-lag and such, and the fact that my allergies have hit REALLY hard doesn’t help, along with that sore throat/cough I mentioned a couple of days ago. But on a positive note, I’ve got a web design job that I’ve got to get done, and I’ll probably start that on Monday.

Another thing I wanna do is start following my mom’s example and working out more. My mom– a 50 year old woman– runs for 45 minutes every day on the treadmill! That’s some serious running! I’ve been pretty good about what I’m eating; I ate a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese the day after I got here and yesterday I had some nachos, but other than that I’ve been fine. So if I can continue with a good diet and also follow in my mom’s “footsteps” of running, I think I can lose some serious weight. But 45 minutes? Hells no. That’s not in the cards for me.

Peas.

Well, I got back to America last night. Right now, it feels just like I’m back for another vacation or something. But I think as soon as I start looking for jobs (probably start Monday), and move out of here then it’ll REALLY hit home.

The flights were…. okay. Nothing too great. I was actually less than impressed with British Airways this time. Of course I was in Economy Class, which translates to “crap” on all airlines.

Oh- and I think I managed to get sick too. I’ve got this nagging sore throat/cough. And the crappy thing is, it’s not like I can just get the medicine by myself from the pharmacy downstairs! In America you need a prescription!!

Peas.

Today there are two, count ‘em, TWO quotes I’m putting up because they’re both worth it.

“Men spend 9 months trying to get out, and the rest of our lives trying to get back in.”
-D-dey, recalling a quote he heard somewhere

“God they’re just so cute and little- I just wanted to grab a couple and put them in my bag!”
-Barry, on his affection for Asian women and how it was exacerbated when he went to Thailand (?)

“I eat anything that won’t eat me first”
-Lakshmi, when I asked her if she eats beef. You can never tell in India. There are all sorts of vegetarians, chicken-only eaters, fish-only eaters, etc. But this response merits a mention.

I don’t know if I had mentioned it, but the guy who was buying the bike had some pretty steep demands for buying it. There are a whole slew of them (I’m not going to mention them; it would take too long), but then on top of that he wanted me to go to the Kinetic dealer today with him and wanted the Kinetic dealer to say, “The bike is in perfect condition, go right ahead.” I was to meet with him yesterday, and he kept me waiting for a full hour before canceling on me. Then today, he was 30 minutes late. (Sigh.. it’s India, what can I say.)

ANYWAY. We went to the dealer’s service shop and the manager’s like, “It’s fine, blah blah blah, you may want to replace this though.” Note: They had never told me that anything needed to be replaced when I was bringing it in for servicing. I think this ‘manager’ Sayeed said this to do what he does in the next sentence. After I leave, Nitin is talking to the guy, and the dealer says to him, “Oh I have another one you can buy if you want. Why not just get that?”

Aadya Kinetic undercut me. Assholes. So Nitin writes me back and says, “I’ll buy it from you for 25,000.” (I had quoted 45K.) I said, “Well sir, go ahead and buy it from the dealer.”

So I get home, TOTALLY pissed off and annoyed that I lost all this sleep and spent time and energy on trying to sell it to this guy, only to have this happen. To be honest, I’m not at all pissed at Nitin but at Aadya, my dealer. They screwed me over. Nitin is just trying to watch his back, which is totally understandable. Then I happened to call another guy who had called me yesterday regarding the bike. He was interested, but I told him that I was in the middle of selling to another buyer. Well, now that the buyer was gone, this guy was my only option. He said, “Sure. I’ll bring the money tomorrow.”

And that was it. He didn’t want to have 3,000,000 things for me to do before giving it to him; he had seen the bike, and he doesn’t even want to touch it until the check that he gives me clears. The only issue is that it’ll take 15 days for that, but I can leave the bike with Apsi or Vinod until that happens.

I’m still not holding my breath too much until I see the guy tomorrow, get the check, and after I get back home, for me to receive word that the check has cleared. But still, God works in wonderful ways.

I’m out.

“Today’s Rant was brought to you by,
The letter C
The number 11
A chemically induced Bi-Polar Kaci
And Viewers Like You!”

-In an email from Kaci. She defines hilarity.

This article that I found on CNN basically says that while hip-hop and the rap culture have a responsibility in negative stereotypes of women, they shouldn’t be singled out. It’s been going on for years.

What are your thoughts?

So now that I know that Apsi’s ticket has been confirmed for Sunday from Malaysia, should I stay a few more days, or should I just leave on time? I’m tossing the idea around, and I’m thinking I should just leave on time.

First off, I think that there will be some sort of charge for changing the dates. If so, we’re talking a couple of hundred bucks right there. Then, even if I do stay, Apsi will be backed up with work for hours and hours, and I won’t have much time to spend with her. And since the Kodaikanal trip is now canceled, there’s no “me and her” time that I’ll have specifically where we’re not worrying about different stressors.

On the other hand, she does have off on Monday, which would make it a three day weekend. GRRR.. the decision.

I have no clue. I’ll see if there’s a charge. If there is, then screw it, I’ll just leave on time. If not, then maybe I can leave next Monday/Tuesday.

We’ll see what happens. Will keep you “posted”, no pun intended.

“Holy crap shes a fob too?”
-Arshy, when I told her that Niya’s from Kenya. I love how it sounded like, ‘Oh my God– they’re everywhere!’

Alright, so we finished the show tonight and it went very very well. The audience was very responsive, they got the jokes, and were laughing hysterically. And also.. and I say this with some trepidation.. they seemed to really like me. There were points when I didn’t even have to speak much or anything; just make some expressions, and the audience would clap and cheer. At another point, I had to hold my lines to wait for the audience to finish their laughing. It was.. a wonderful feeling.

If you (oh gentle reader) have ever noticed, I don’t usually put compliments that I’ve received on my performance on here. That’s because in general, I think that it’d be me boasting. I don’t usually even tell Apsi the compliments I get because it’s like, I’m glad they enjoyed the show; I was just a part of it. But today’s were very special to me, perhaps because it’s the last show I’ll be doing in India (at least for a very long time). So, I’d like to just share them with you.

First, there was a girl who came up to me and said, “Brilliant is an understatement when talking about your performance. It was amazing.” Wow. I was floored and politely just said, “Thanks so much. I really don’t know what to say– thanks for coming to the show.” And then there was a girl named Aishwarya who came up to me, and gave me the best compliment I’ve probably ever gotten: “It’s good to finally see a real actor at work. I enjoyed your performance a lot.” I completely didn’t know what to say. I was really just.. taken aback. It felt great. We talked a bit more (about her, not me) and I suggested that she contact this theatre group so that she could join and get started in their plays too. She said she would and we parted ways.

So that’s that. I think that’s the only time you’ll ever see me put up compliments I’ve received. Hope you enjoyed it.

“Finish your beer. There are sober children in Somalia.”
-D-dey, as we were all talking about cool quotes.

Then you should definitely watch this interview with Richard Gere by Jon Stewart regarding the “kissing controversy.” I haven’t fully seen it yet, but I saw a little bit of it in the news over here and he seemed very affable and almost like he was defending India.

I especially loves the part where Jon jokes about the “small right wing group”–ah screw it just check it out.