The Brave One

Ok.. I am not going to waste too many words on the movie.. The movie's tag line reads 'How many wrongs make it right'. Instead they should have said 'How being near death makes you a serial killer'. That would've been more precise and to-the-point. The only credit to the movie was Jodie Foster herself who's delivered another flabbergastingly realistic performance. You can smell and feel her fear and she has conveyed every emotion to perfection. But that's all that there is on the movie. It drags on for over 2 hours with the audience dying for the movie to get over.

The bottom line: See it if you are big Foster fan... Otherwise, you ain't missing much.

Finger cots?

I'd never heard of or seen finger cots till I joined K. Here they don't use hand gloves. Instead they use finger cots. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_cot. It seemed a ludicrous substitute to the conventional latex-free, purple nitrile gloves which I considered academic/industry standard. And its likeness to a male condom is uncanny. No wonder when I wiki-ed it, it confirmed my own comparisons and I felt good that I wasn't a pervert- yeay! Obviously you have to wear one on each finger (atleast I do - most people wear them only on the thumb, index and middle fingers of each hand - lo behold - you've saved 4 finger cots!!) At first I found it unsettling, icky and creepy even. Now I am used to it. Yet I wonder.. its more time-consuming, icky and tends to come off easily.. and it isn't even that much inexpensive than the traditional gloves. And people tend to unroll them off of their fingers and reuse them.. That's the limit, if you ask me. Eew.

A sliver of hope.. and then no scope!

Like I'd mentioned K had banned most websites at work. So when they upgraded my comp to XP and handed it back to me, I recklessly decided to try out some site, mostly GMail. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they'd either omitted the Firewall or its tough fabric had torn! For 6 long hours, I was the proud browser of all my email clients, Orkut, etc. But I didn't misuse my rights. I promptly checked email/scraps etc and logged off.. more out of gratitude than ethic I think. And I say 6 hours because, right after coffee break when I exercise my right.. it was gone! They'd sewn the stupid Firewall back. Hmph.

Walking Wounded

Ouch... In today's aerobics class, I managed to sulikify ("catch") my back! :( Its uncomfortable, painful and hurts everytime I twist. Moreover, my food's feeling heavy in my tummy and I have the feeling that the back has something to do with this. All this upon the non-ergonomic chair that K has isn't any good. I have to slouch a bit.. the chair doesn't let me sit straight up.. I have to bend down a bit.. the chair doesn't let me lower it.. And every sip of my beloved water shoots sparks of pain down my back! What does one do for backpain relief? And quick? Any suggestions? Boo Hoo.

Rated 'i'

Ever noticed how no matter what you do, there's at least one person who is not happy with what you did? It maybe work you did, a report you wrote or something as simple as what you told a friend. Everything comes under the high-powered microscope of society you didn't know existed till it smacks you on the face. Do things really have to be this complicated? Especially when you thought the world was simple. Leaves you feeling i-rate, doesn't it?

Kidney Bazaar

Read this:http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/05/345490.aspx

And Pakistan is just one of those countries where there are no laws governing organ sales. Here are the policies in some other key countries: http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0609/p12s02-wogi.html. And in spite of everything, the laws, the sentences, everything, who's to say that there's not a flourishing black market for this kind of stuff? Like someone had commented to one of the articles, it is better having a hospital hygienically remove it rather than having a butcher shop cutting you out and damaging God-knows-what. These days with laproscopy, I wonder why minimally invasive surgery is not an option. Its the rich guys who buy the kidneys anyways and there should be a provision where they'd have to pay for the best kind of surgery and care for the donors. I am not sure any of this is the right thing to do at all. I think Robin Cook's Coma was just one of the books inthe 70s to explore the ever-increasing and appalling organ black market. Whats the solution to this whole thing? Introducing a legal documentation system the way US has and matching willing donors blah blah or trying to rescue 2 sides of the coin - the healthy man with no wealth and a family to support AND the rich dying man?

Unshruggables

Unshruggables (N): People you can't seem to get rid off

I met one today.. I was getting back from the airport by bus and he chanced to sit next to me. He seemed plain friendly at first and then went on to trying being pally. He rambled on for the 25 minutes that the first connection from the airport took. Believe me when I tell, you I was answering in monosyllables and said no more than 10 words. I was in no mood to fraternize with overly friendly strangers. He got off at the same stop as I did and waited for the same connection bus I did. I have never had a longer 45 minutes in my life. And it wasn't like he was talking about the weather. He was probing about me.. what I did.. where was I from.. how long was I here... I even went so far as to tell him, "I don't think I need to answer any of these questions." And finally I managed to shrug him off by getting off a stop later than I wanted to. The things one has to do... Whats the politest way of being rude? Any suggestions to deal with such situations?