aDviCe oN tHE inTErNeT

just a dream, Nelly

the other day i was searching some old forums .. for shucks i dunno.. something and then i happened on someone describing this brand new thing. buy a tiny "webcam" and hook it up to your computer and then u can actually see the person ur chatting with using this new brand new s/w like yahoo chat!!
ok thats when i checked the date, and saw it was 2002.


ha!
well that explains it. poor fools who didn't know how far the world would come in just a decade. but wait .. weren't we some of those poor fools? and wait didn't ppl in every decade say it of their predecessors?
still its pretty ridiculous to read those old posts.

then i was looking at some other posts and came upon this religious lady's site.. wait let me try to remember it...
had some junk about .. oh ya. she was advising this other dame, that she shouldn't get a job even though her husband lost his job and things were getting tough at home. "oh no! don't get a job dearie, u'd hurt ur husband's self esteem. it's his job to provide for the family and u getting a job might suggest that u think he's not upto snuff. < so what if ur kids don't have ice cream o sunday? > a good wife knows how to make do with less and the only way u shud help him is to provide a better life at home with the meager things you have around < like home grown cabbage and potatoes?? >. and that's the best you can support your husband through these trying times. by being kind and doing ur job !! < that is taking care of the house.. > and the good lord will take care of you. the end."

oh good lord! i swear i cudn't make this stuff up. this is exactly what was written on the site. i still have a bitter taste in my mouth from throwing up after reading that.... pile of cow.. no wait horse dung. < ok that's the kindest thing i can say >.

i swear i think i found the place where stupid came to die.

aLL CAPS dAmmiT

recently i had to make a presentation to my boss.
did i tell u this story already? perhaps i did ...

so you know, me trying to be clever made this clever presentation where i had the title of each slide was in all small letters. and kind of started with a small letter.
now I THOUGHT it looked cool, ok?

but my boss takes one look at it, gives me this wierd look and says, yeah the presentation is fine, but pls make all the title start with CAPS. and now i'm grimacing coz how do i tell him, dude u need to be buried before we can bring back cool. but then he reads my face < i have been told my face gives my thoughts away awfully easily > and then says , yes i know you kids think its very casual and cool nowadays , but it won't work here. we are professionals. we need to make professional slides.

$%@#!! oh ya? i don't see what CAPS has anything to do with professional.
uh uh but i DO NOT.

today he mails me his leadership feedback form. muahahahahahahaha.... < very resident evil laughter fading into the background >

tReaSuRe huNt & oThErS

its unbelievably hard to find a song when you don't know the singer, the lyrics, the album, the title...
ultimately the only way is to comb through the billboard charts and listen to the top 100 songs one song at a time ... not a bad way to pass time though :P



note to self : OneRepublic - secrets

:D

*******************************

spoke to A the other day. her wedding's fixed!! well then congrats A!! ofcourse A's a lil ahead of the times and i can just imagine everyone in the remote town of Trichi when she walks in wearing a houte couture designer gown.. a really slinky one and then i can imaging some poor grandma with her eyes almost popping out of her sockets at the audacity. hehehehehehe < semi-evil laughter > :D
good fun! shocking the establishment. i say u go for it A. and if possible carry a tiny live webcam so that the rest of us can roll of the sofa laughing our heads off.

*******************************

now, as you all might know, a close friend has been taken hostage by a tiny lil alien living inside her and the day when its gonna rip her < ouch > and get out is getting closer and closer. as you know, i am terrified of these tiny delicate looking creatures who have the power to bring fully grown adults to the edge of sanity. but i am steeling myself to the possibility of looking the tiny alien in the eye and not running; screaming like a lil girl < puh-lease lil girls have nothing on me, when i encounter the strange mystic aliens >

another colleague is considering voluntarily giving up her job so she can move to NY next yr and host another one of these < how many more will you take darn it! > and that's truly sad, coz she's my only lunch buddy right now. and if she goes away to gah! > be an incubation machine, then who will i have lunch with ? < hey... come ON!! look at the big picture !! >

:D

********************************

god knows where my head is at, nowadays. i right slept through a 7 AM meeting. infact i had this really wierd dream, where i had gone into a shoe shop and another senior lady colleague was there trying to buy boots and i thought to myself "aaha! my nemesis. i too should buy a shoe to defeat her" and then next thing i know its 7:44 and i wake up to open my laptop < yes i open my laptop as soon as i can open my eyelids every morning > and then i am kindly informed by my helpful outlook i am 44 minutes overdue to a meeting. < gaaaaaaaaaaah! darn you my arch nemesis. ur the reason i was late!! trying to outdo ur shoe selection!! >

i demand satisfaction madam.

ok calm down and listen to this song instead



note to self: OneRepublic - apologize

sAYiNg iT tHe riGHt wAY

OOOOOOOOOOOooops

i really shud back off a bit.

u know the last post, i was raving a bit ? mostly becoz i was having a really bad day at the office??

well my.. ahem friend caught be red handed or u cud say red-lettered.
yeah !! oops!! u cud say THAT again!!

now while he was gracious enough to laugh it off.. umm haha... others who have caught me red-lettered might not find it so funny.

well... i shud really start getting more and more vague-r if i plan to take 'inspiration' from life.

well.. ahem... i'm sorry... errr...

anyhooooo
now on another note, u know how sometimes in life ur forced to deal with the government? like the post office or the driving license folks. and u wish you could rather poke urself in the eye with a fork than deal with those guys. coz really if someone was the living definition of moronic or dodoish then it wud be the beurocracy guys. ok so the DMV in this country is marginally better than the post office, but boy do the PO guys take the cake.
trust me, if u try to get them on the phone, u can't even call ur local PO! u get routed to some random HQ where they ask u for ur zipcode and tell u they cant find the PO next to ur house.
yup.. enough to make u want to pull ur hair out.

sigh.

feeling a it restless tonight. must be the meds.
tell me one thing, how many females in ur office who have .. say 10+ yrs of experience and aren't ... wierd.
ok just say how many are normal and competent.
then think of the rest. i swear my group has only preggers who look like their going crazy coz of the hormones, young females including me < hey i'm young... sort of > who run around like chickens with their heads cut off and then the small elite group of older females who are insane. i mean literally insane.
a couple i suspect are just menopausal but the moment i mentioned that to my colleague, all she said was "eeeew what's wrong with you" to which i replied, "what, its a normal human thing. i really think J's menopausal u know. there can be no other explanation for her behavior."

much as i'd like not to perpetuate negative stereotypes, sometimes it just can't be helped... this female P.. she's crazy man.
the other day she pings me out of the blue and asks me
P: "hey, is the camera working on ur board"
me: "ummm YA?? " < come ON lady its been working for a yr and u've seen it. you CANNOT be serious. >

i mean really?? how would u like it if i came to u and asked u, hey is gcc working.
ugly man. office politics is just plain ugly. luckily i'm not caught up with it. but then turf wars, and ppl blaming the tools for random measurements, taking credit for other ppl's work and just plain ol nastiness... i miss the dolphins. they're highly more civilized.

lot of thrash in the office. as u can see from the sparsity of the posts.. just too much thrash in the office.

hoW tO spELL tMi

you know how on ur chat list, sometimes you have people you kind of know, but don't really know.. i mean, you've spoken to them a couple of times and yet they're vague aquaintances at best bound to you by some random commonality like college classmate or high school classmate or something.

and i know with me atleast its a daily ritual to open my laptop and login to gmail and look at the gmail chat list and then get on with work.
ok these ppl are in today. these are not. its not like i'd chat with 20 ppl on my list everyday, but its like a virtual.... coffeehouse?? and ur just strangely comforted by the thought, that these ppl are accessible within nanoseconds incase a serial killer crept up behind you and tried to strangle you.
"heeeelp, call 911. i'm being stranmgled"

but then all such warm thoughts vanish when u spy this said vague aquaintance with a seemingly incongrous status message but makes u so uncomfortable , that u want to barf.
"i never knew how to pray, until i learnt how to love"

what? i mean here i am mentally strolling through my daily ritual and this brings everything to a screeching halt. before it starts again. just the momentary stall is enough to irk me.
dude what??
i get funny status messages. i LIKE funny. but i don't do ... ugh sends a shiver down my spine...

rEaL LivE chiCkEn

watching some corny movie right now, but the music is pretty good.

anyhoo...have u ever noticed, how deathly afraid we are of making choices. personally i hate making choices, even of what kind of soap or cereal i buy. always imagining me making the worst possible choice and that moment cascading to a minor disaster of nuclear proportions leading to the end of the universe as we know it.

trust me, every little choice i have to make, black or blue, pink or green, buy dress or not, leads to long internal debates carefully weighing the pros and cons till all possible outcomes of the choices are debated and deemed safe for the future of the world, and then i feel i can commit to something.
that's why most times i feel infinitely better if someone else makes the choice for me, or if i dither long enough the universe finally gets fed up of waiting and says, "hey! i'll take care of this one, u get the next."

but i think everyone is a little afraid of making the wrong choice. what if this was the decision that ended up as the turning point in ur life, and everything went downhill after that and then u ended up homeless, living out of a box?
sounds ridiculous doesn't it?? but let me ask you, how many times have u decided you'd rather stay where you are at a deadlock, simply spinning in one spot than go left or right down the path to wherever u cud be heading?

how many times do we chicken out and say no, when we're too afraid of taking the risk to say yes? or vice versa...
how many times would we rather maintain the status quo than ... than take a leap of faith and just go for it.

ugh! too serious a topic for saturday night isn't it?



note to self: song title, love the way u lie

oFfiCe mEsS

gaah ! its terrible.

just look at my track record this year!

just 33 posts !! ok 34 and counting! somehow in my head i had a whole lot more writing done.

i wonder how many posts i can post about my lack of posts.

gaah! never mind.

today i realized that i really do have a pointy haired boss.


gaaah!

tUrTLeS swiMmiNG

note to myself: neon trees, animal

boy have i searched for this song. it's the ad song for bones. you know the tv show. though i don't watch the show myself. i did happen to stumble on this when channel surfing.

ok adding the hawaii pics. just a teeny tiny subset.









lava flowing into the ocean


this house is trapped after lava flowed all around it! but hey! it survived dinnit?

nice pics aren't they?? HEY I TOOK THEM. everyone stop giving credit to K!! just coz he carries a huge camera around !! and he hasn't even posted those pics yet!

oPpoSinG pOLeS oN fAcEboOk

i know that everyone says opposites attract, but have you actually looked around you to observe it? is it true that opposites attract or do we just tune ourselves to oppose everything our.. umm 'better halves' say and do :P

think about it , right?
on the one hand we have K who's easy going, social, friendly, likes ppl, likes coffee, mebe not necessarily in that order; and on the other hand we have me, who's neurotic, paranoid and actively dislikes ppl AND coffee and prefers the company of dolphins instead.
add to all that narcissistic, egoistical and lazy and can we say hello-big-disaster-here?

its the same case, right. with R and her .. ummmm...."better half" < no seriously this has to be in double quotes. its the highest kind of euphemism to call her partner the better half... >
she's uber friendly and extrovertish and outgoing and he's umm... basically a more paranoid freak version of me.

makes one wonder. were we like this before we met our halves or did we just digress to this opposite points on the scale so that things could be in balance??? like some mystical yin yang thing??

K: "here, try some coffee. its amazing"
me: "i'd rather not thanks."
K: "but it's really good"
me: "no i don't want it"
K: "but it's really reaaaeaally good"
me: "i'd rather throw up" < that shud quiet you, you coffee pusher >

K: "you have to call ppl. keep in touch with them. login to facebook once in a while.."
me: "i hate facebook, i hate it. infact i abhor it. no, i actually loathe it. and while ur at it, i hate ppl too" < good, that should be enough to discourage any more talk about facebook. do you think that's enough? mebe i shud throw in a few more adjectives while i'm at it.. >

i find that, often with ppl, it's useful to NOT stop at politely declining a helpful suggestion. one has to smash it beyond all hope and grind it to dust to prevent it from ever being resurrected in the future again. or else you'll just end up saying "no, thank you" over and over and over again, and that too at the same suggestion. ha! as if 10 minutes later i'll find the idea of facebook appealing.

< now i better stop before i go on a complete bender and an entire 4 pages worth of facebook-hate-rant. No!! i do NOT wish to know how good your lunch break was. thank you very much my-highschool-classmate. and i absolutely do NOT wish to throw a cow at you. stop sending me requests, it confuses my poor brain as i don't know if i'm supposed to remember you and i've forgotten or if your some random psycho stalker >

dOLphiNs pLayiNG iN bLuE wATeRs

so ... i've been a away for a while ... hmmm well u know.. how it goes.. ummm... its not like i forgot you or anything. i mean.. i swear!! i totally remembered you.. like.. yesterday itself. when i was .. umm... buttering my toast. i mean ... i meant to write, but u know it was work, and then vacation.. and then...
yeah.. i know i know.. excuses excuses :P

so. here's the latest.
just got back from vacation. went to hawaiiii. oh it was awesome. the best part?
mebe its the red glow of the volcano, or the green sand beach or the manta ray. omg the manta RAY!! i snorkelled and came up close to this GIGANTIC MANTA RAY!! and in the pacific ocean!! and in the night!! and next to a japanese guy who kept squealing "manta is coming, manta is coming"!!

oh it was awesome. i loved snorkelling. i plan to do more of it. ok mebe not in portland. but somewhere, some day.
hawaii is pretty neat. everyone shud go there atleast once.

yaawn. i'm jet lagged. K is nice , took care of the whole trip. ok K is not only nice, he deserves a "K is Awesome!!"

will post some pics soon. mebe of the Maaaaaaaanta Raaaaaaay!! woooohooooo
< ok no more mai tais for me >

SpOkeN biTeS

it's hard talking to extended family on the other side.
i thought it was hard to get along old fogeys in my family before..

but after last dec, there are a few concepts i find hard to digest .. oh forget accept.

the notion that there now is my "side" of the family and his "side". really really hate that. i mean i cannot even begin to describe how much i hate that term and that concept. family is family and should be hated/barely tolerated/ignored equally.
:D

its a medieval very colloquial term, that we've heard ppl using all our lives and which seems to express literally what it's supposed to... but it also somehow conveys a division... or a partition if you will. which i really don't want to.
i mean i already was pretty busy, making fun of "my" folks, now if i have to make fun of "his" folks. then i'd like to make fun of all of "them".. toegther.
keeps it simpler for my brain, that way.
:D

( but you know what i mean .. just the idea of having to keep the... ahem.. "relatives" seperate and make fun of them seperately is gonna burn some extra cycles in my brain. which i don't wanna do )

so here's me banishing the sides and mashing them all up together. from now on, i shud refer to all the .. ahem.. relatives in some single group way. yet to be defined.

( i need to find a funny name but yet not too insulting , u know? coz some of them are really computer literate and might be reading this as i type.. ok not as i type.. but you know what i mean. and its really hampering my style < ya right! > )

so. getting back to the list.
what was i saying again ?
oh ya stuff i never get used to.

so you know how they say families are different , and ofcourse they are. but its not really that. all familias are wierd < that's not a typo > and yet we're just used to the eccentricities of our own. it's when we're faced with new eccentricities out of the blue is when we're blinking in a dazed way and wondering "what happened".
it's easier if you're the kind of person, who generally likes ppl .. like K.
but if you happen to be some neurotic, paranoid person like .. ahem.. someone .. then it's really hard not to smack someone sideways in the head, knock them unconcscious and make a run for it.

it looks like i'll not be completing the list today.
but another thing i wanted to mention, that makes me very hesitant to talk to these folks , is that my brain has to constantly kind of censor my thoughts and replace all singular references to K with the plural. now the reason i find it hard, and i only have a 50% success rate, is that brain isn't used to censoring anything. my traditional solution for censoring the brain, was to keem mum.
but now sometime's brain is forced to speak up and then you can watch me fumbling in all my glory.. stumbling over words, tripping until i don't know what's up or what's down anymore.

now it's not so bad when i talk about K , right? coz i can always make sure i never ever directly refer to K at all. < yes my solution, is to just omit the reference and continue with the sentence. ppl make the connection on their own .. the brain can be a powerful friend.. my.. uh.. friend > or the other option is to seamlessly break into english mid-sentence. < its these times that i really appreciate all that the brits have done for us >

but what do you do, when you slip up and refer to Their spouses in the singular.
oooooh now you've really done it.
if X doesn't refer to her own husband by his name, and refer's to him in the plural, how could YOU do it???
uh oh... major blooper. so then i hurry up and move to some topic that will take their mind off , off my foot-in-the-mouth moment.
now to go one step further, its more complicated if you have friends/colleagues with the same names .. which only means that the names come oh-so-easily to you and you just spill them every sentence..

"so how's M.. < ow >. did you and M go to that picnic you were talking about? < ow > i mean the other day K was thinking of calling M < ow , ow stop talking already. >"

ya i shud just shut up. maybe i shud switch languages to swahili. think that would help?

giFtiNg nAtUre

K's bday's coming up.. and while i troll the online world wondering what i can get him... i stumbled across this site... pretty funny!! and the comments are even more hillarious!! some ppl really don't get a joke.

Funny Blog someone else wrote.

it's true!! if i had to count the number of things K's given me on his own.. < that's without me saying i want it.. >

K: "lookout for the post, i've sent u a package."

me: "really!! what did you send???" < secretly thrilled. it's the first time i'm getting something from him in the post. >

package arrives

i open it

it's Alton Brown's "gear for the kitchen"

K: "what? you didn't like it?? it talks about how to pick the right shaped utensils and knives and equipment for the kitchen. and i read it the other day, and it was so technical..."

i reset my expectations of poor K. now i just tell him what i want and he gets it.. which is gr8 coz now i can go all "ooh i love it, you shouldn't have"

bAke mE a biTe

hey !!

i baked !!

and it was edible!!

incredible isn't it??

:D

i mean , i had a bite, and i didn't spontaneously combust or turn sick .. or .. or ANYTHING!

that's awesome.

i made date and cashew nut cake.

you your right, i'm completely awed by myself. ok ok so it didn't have as much sugar.. but it was chewy. and soft. and not like a brick.

that's awesome !

tO reAlLy waLk abOvE thE cLOudS

note to self : shontelle, impossible.


how does it feel to be above the clouds? how does it feel to be weave your hand through a cloud? i think i'll be pushing the limits of language to actually describe it.

the only way to truly experience the olympic national park is to backpack through the country. this time we tried a more sanitized view of the park. staying in the olympic lodge, and then going round to all the spots.
couldn't do the coast or the ferry to victoria.

but mebe next time.








i just heard. today my grandma passed away. may her soul rest in peace. and i don't want to talk about it anymore.

i'd rather just listen to the songs.
and just look at the stars..........

aCroSs bRidGe oF thE gOdS

did you know why Dog mountain is called that?

apparently coz starving pioneers were forced to eat their dogs when they did their pioneering thing through the mountains.

eeeeeeeeeeeEEEEsh!!

oh well. ppl do all sorts of crazy stuff.

like this guy who ran up and down the mountain. TWICE!! :O

lets not kid ourselves, this was a tough hike !! in the first ten minutes i was all .. what the $%##$@!! have i gotten myself into?? already feeling dizzy and nauseous. i felt like throwing up. i think i was mildly dehydrated to start with, and then the weather was a bit hot.

ok back up a little.

me and S, head out to hike. ok it's only the two of us. we can do it. ok here we go.. we're starting now..

5 minutes later i'm huffing and puffing like a smoker asked to run the 50k marathon. and i'm wishing i could lie down some place nice and cool and go to sleep forever.
so i ask S to go on without me, and i tell her i'll follow slowly and meet you when your coming down.




she leaves me reluctantly coz really its only the two of us. but i convince her and so she goes.

another 10 min later, i'm eating my protein bar and drinking water trying to hydrate myself. coz its so friggin hot. and i'm sweating buckets. and i'm thinking of going back. i'm taking breaks every 5 min. but everytime i sit down, someone comes up behind me and i start walking a lil coz i don't really want to look like a douche bag in front of them. so i walk a bit. and stop a bit and walk a bit and fall down a bit. my bag now feels like it weighs a TON. and i even try carrying it on my head like an old indian railway station porter. hey! there's a reason why frail ancient looking guys can carry our heavy luggage, right?

so the trail continues through the forest. relentlessly switching back and forth.

now, the overall trail goes like this. its approx 0.7 miles to a fork on the road. the right is more difficult and the left is most difficult. no, really that's how its labelled. and then they converge someplace and then its a common trail about 1.1 miles to the top. the more difficult path adds about 0.4 miles extra to your hike coz its not so steep; you know ( but trust me, you won't know it ) ... and the total gain is about 2800 feet ( ouch! i know!! )

anyways, so i decide not to be a hero; and hence take the more difficult path rather than the most difficult one; and i know that there's a viewpoint in the more difficult path, and i think. ok i can at the very least make the darn viewpoint. and then mebe i'll head back. you know. so i alternate between walking and collapsing sporadically.

after an hour of huffing and reeling about drunkenly i finally reach the first viewpoint. yaaay!! phew. now most of the time the only reason i got up from wherever i was collapsed was coz of a> the mosquitos and b> ppl coming up behind me and i didnt want to be sitting there like some kind of .. well you know.

i collapse on the bench. take a few pics and cast a wary eye over the next section of the trail. after about 10 min, i think. ok mebe not so bad. i dont feel like i'm dying, i could try as much as i could. the prob right now is i'm running out of water. poor S had given me half her water and i still had gone through it like a ... like a... very thirsty person. < grimace. ok so i can't really think of anything right now! >

now i know that this view point is atleast 1.4 miles away. at minimum. so i start trying to do the math and walk. and i meet some ppl coming down and ask them. and she says, its cooler on the top. and you clear the trees. so its nice. but its steeper than the way we came. coz the way we came also included some walks through the forest where i caught my breadth.

now i'm seriously consuidering leaving my bag somewhere so i can pick it up on the way back. and now i'm looking for a convenient hiding spot.
and then i reach this place. the point where the more and most difficult meet. couple of guys sitting there. and i ask them how bad is it. up ahead. he looks at this meter thing. and he says. well its 900 ft elevation. and another mile atleast. but its cooler. you should do it. i look at the trail. its a friggin mountain. i think its at that point i mentally started praying. i mean literally, doing hare ram hare ram. now these guys were sitting there, and i didnt' want to turn back in front of them, so i think ok let me walk to that point and lets see.

so i walk up and i almost come tumbling down, coz i mean its steep man.
but somehow i take breaks and keep walking. i'm down to a single user path and if i sit down, then ppl literally have to jump over my head. also there might be creepy crawly things. but rememeber she said i'd climb over the trees? so i notice that the trees are getting shorter and shorter. and i look for the tallest tree i can find. and i think; ok let me go to the friggin base of that tallest tree and see.
and i go.

so sometimes i look up, sometimes i look down just focusing on the next 10 steps. and sometimes i'm praying.
and then i come up to this path that's literally a very very narrow path through overgrown bushes. and that's where i get the call from S. she's reached the top and asks me where i am. i tell her as best as i can. and she says there's another viewpoint up ahead. pretty close, so mebe we should meet there, coz its even steeper after that. i agree wholeheartedly.

now armed with the info that its close by. i try to do the rolling hikers walk and put some energy into my steps.
when i'm almost ready to give up, i meet some ppl heading down and they tell me. the second viewpoint is right up ahead. at the end of my present climb. and then you got to turn and you climb straight up to the top.
i look around and i notice, i've cleared the trees completely !! yaay!!

so since i'm meeting her at the second viewpoint, i go lumbering on.

man the view is already great out here. i can see the whole columbia river. i can see cascade range. beacon rock looks so tiny. i'm amazed. and then i spot the sign. it says 0.4 miles to the top.
i sigh. man i made it this far. i cant turn back down now.
and anyways you can see the path all the way to the top. atleast you have hope of where it'll end. so i call S and tell her i'll meet her atleast at 0.2 miles. coz every foot i gain will give me a better view. i start climbing.

now the last stretch is all gravel. and slippery rocks. so she was coming down slower than i was climbing. i met her half way. and i was like how far is it from here. i look around, its amazing. she says u know you came so far. you shud go till the end.
ok i have 2 sips of water left and a subway in my bag. its 2:00. its not so bad. so i tell her i'll catch up with her. and i labor on.

but now i can see the end, so its not as bad. and i have a spring in my step. i come to this kind of clearing where ppl are sunbathing and look around confused. where does the trail go? and then i get it.

i reached the top !!!




woohoo!!
:P

well time to plonk down and have a sandwhich. and look at the amazing view !

so i sit there, for a while in the mud and grass. and the sun beating down on me. but the winds were amazing. and i look to my right and i can see st helen through the clouds behind the cascade range. and i look to the left and i see mt hood peeking from behind the cascade range too. and i'm amazed at the height and the river and the wind and everything!!

15 min later i remember S is waiting , and i head back down. full of energy and happy. ofcourse i went down faster. but since the path was soo steep, you literally have to jog down. and the knees kind of take a hit.
but since i knew she was waiting , i went at a brisk pace. only thing was the path just kept on going. it just went on and on and on.
by this time i was sooo thirsty and more than ready to take a dunk in the columbia river.

an hour later we were on hour way home and celebrating with gatorade and a litre of water :P

good times!

tHe sKeW oF thiNgS

if i ever needed proof of my potential for disaster, then i think i got plenty of evidence this month.

oh no, really. things are super fine here. i'm i n beijing and after all the circus to finalize my plans. they cancel the flight to get out of here on the 3rd. and now the brilliant morons, just rebooked one of my flights, without changing the connecting flight!! so basically my connecting flight is 15 hrs before my first flight.
oh brilliant.

and my manager got to know, what i did.
and was like.. aaah thats a no no. booking official trips through external websites.
ok boss.

i think next time, i'd decline the official trip itself.

more and more i feel like there are all these hurdles in my way. "i can hear you plotting you know! darn gollums"

went to this place called pure lotus. some cross over of buddhist and indian and arabian kind of place. pure vegetarian. but in the sense they make everything look and taste like non veg. but made from tofu. actually it was more like, the chinese understanding of indian. there were sculptures of camels around. and diwans and waters and waitresses wearing outlandish salwars. and lot of glitter.
and the serving plates were exotic. hey hang on, i got pics.



and this is a serving dish of tofu that looks and tastes like shark fin.
to be very honest, it was ugh. how could ppl eat this stuff.



in chicago there's a vegan restaraunt that gives you tofu based food that looks and tastes like chicken and beef. this is the chinese version of that place. where food looks and tastes like authentic chinese food. for ppl who hate the smell and taste of non veg food, its a no win sitch. coz who would want to eat veg food that tastes like non veg. ugh.
for ppl who wish they could eat it, but cannot due to some moral upbringing and repressing themselves from doing it. hey! this is awesome.

another place we went to the day before was very upscale and even more awesome. i think i should wait till we get out of the country to post pics. though another thing is i had forgotten to take the camera with me for dinner.
well lesson learnt! now i don't step out of the room without my camera!!

it was al black and white and i had a cushion of purple feathers. and these 8 foot backs to the chairs. and some really fancy and wierd setting. there was this tree that was painted all white. might be fake and it was kind of the center piece of the whole place.

and the whole rest. was just one long table with these chairs around it. the chairs were pretty simple but had 8 foot long backrests... maybe these hotels should be a seperate piece by themselves!!

tHrouGh tHe LoOkiNg gLaSs

beijing is a humongous city. ok its dark out and i can't really see much. 12 AM. the city was bustling. i look out the 17th floor window of the westin, and all i can see are vehicles whizzing by.
4:00 AM and the city slightly calmer. i look out the window and see huge signs on buildings. lettering all of it in chinese. sony erricson says one. gateway says the other.. and unless i see the english translated sign on the other side, i really don't know what they're declaring to the world.

nice roads, short ppl. really short and tiny ppl. or mebe its just coz i'm on the 17th floor.. naah they really are a short race. if you moved from sweden to here, you'd totally get a culture shock.

ok here's the view from my window -
really really early in the morning at 4:00 AM:




and morning 6:00 AM


the lobby :).. aaaaw yes i know i'm being a total tourist!!

sTarT oF tHe NeXt

ok so i've started. blogging from vancouver as we speak.

the last one week has been packed! with a capital P. meetings , working lunches, more meetings and team dinners. listening to a lot of ppl speak, talking and getting bludgeoned. :-/

on the bright side, we had the meetings in a golf course on tuesday and it was gr8!
was on the driving range for the first time! :)
ha! it was hilarious.



omg i don't know what i was thinking when i booked my flights! 6 hrs layover in vancouver, 4 hours in seoul, and then reaching beijing 24 hrs after i depart.
on the way to india i have god knows how many hours layover.
something's wrong with my brain. it just doesn't convert flight timings, landing times and flight durations correctly. mebe that's why ive been telling ppl i land 2-4 hours after i actually land.
its a disaster if i have to be picked up.

its one of the main reasons i hate to book flights. have this horrid fear that i might have booked the wrong dates.
also i'm getting a creeping thought in my head. did i leave the gas range on??
how will i know?? i don't have any recollection of switching it on. but then i dont have very good recollection now, do i???
aaaaaahrgh.

vancouver isn't so bad. larger population of chinkis than i'm used to. but nice empty airport. and nice open spaces and no ppl around. ok so i admit that's what i like best about a place :D no ppl around.






ok now i hope they don't arrest me for taking pics of the airport! gtg!

sTop wATchiNg mUsiC aLtoGeTheR

have you ever stopped to wonder how the world has changed ?? i mean not since time began, but since the last 100 yrs or so? ok mebe from lil more before ??

i'm watching VH1, and i'm thinking to myself.. wtf??

ok so we came from being primitive tribal ppl, to some kind of .. normal looking ppl?? i dunno. ok then the victorian wierdo phase where everyone was covered up all over. ok ok am talking of the western world, not exactly "we" but its easier for me to tell a story this way, so hang on before you start spamming me about how i'm forgetting i'm indian. but i digress...

and now. NOW, we have something like lady gaag on tv, with beyonce, wearing bikinis and thongs and looking butt ugly and not caring. and prancing around ( helloooo that can't be dancing?? are you serious?? )
actually i like the song. don't get me wrong. but the videos???
:O

wat the eff!!
its all semi naked women, and outlandish wierd clothes. and man is she butt ugly.
and then all of them wearing wonder woman kind of costumes and...

oh man this is a sad sad century. don't think i'll switch on VH1 for a long long time !

nEw tHiNgs to tRy

Well what do you know, I'm blogging from the new iPad !!!!!


Aw shucks now I know what I said earlier.. But ....ok so I'm still on the fence a bit. It's very cool and all, and I can surf and type as fast as I can on a normal keyboard (ok let's go back and heck the typos :P) but I don't know if I really want to carry this around with me along with my laptop and phone and wallet and iPod. Phew thats a full bag.

But still its a really fancy we browsing device.

:)

Ooooh ooh btw I walked bout 6 miles today. Ran a little, walked a little.. But I feel good :)

Work is getting more hectic than ever. Actually, losing my mind is more like it!! Oh well. Oohh ooh btw off to china end of the month. Looks like it s happening. Found out I need a Canadian visa to transit through there. Which is stupid!!!!!
Ok Canada transit visa check.
Book hotel check.
Pack clothes check.

FAA. I wish I cud take my net book with me when I'm traveling. Wud be cool.



note to self: pure imagination, wonka