american chickens

So my folks came home yesterday, and to show them how well I could survive, and have been surviving, I decided to cook them dinner..
Chicken, I thought, because, well... who doesn't like chicken?
I took a walk to the nearby food emporium and ambled along to the raw meat section.. There I was greeted by a whole plethora of different ways to buy chicken..
skinless
boneless
individual pieces
large birds
small birds
oraganic hens
country hens
jesus.. it was quite a sight.. whatever happened to the good ol' days when you pointed to the bird which flapped its wings the most, and asked the butcher to chop it up and wrap it up?
ok ok.. Im getting sidetracked..
so since I'm a grad student and perpetually short of cash, I bought one of the cheapest kinds.. Regular chicken thighs, with the skin..
what the hell, I thought, It'll take me a couple of minutes to remove the skin before I cook it.
So I got home and started to remove the skins.. and lo and behold.. there was no endd to the fat on this chicken! it was attached to the meat, attached to the skin, ingrained deep in the meatt.. EVERYWHERE!!
This was by far the MOST unhealthy set of birds I've ever seen (I say set of birds because there were 6 thighs, and lets face it, what are the odds that both the thighs of 3 chickens ended up in the same packet?).
It took me a good forty five minutes to clean up all the excess fat, and about 30 minutes after that to cook the damn things.
Its no wonder that so many americans are overweight and suffer from hypercholerterolemia! (its a word)
If they're eating chicken like that with the fat still on it, its bound to likk you sooner rather than later!
i'm still in shock over those birds..
each thigh had more fat on it that an average african individual. what do they feed these things??

@23

I'm 23 years old.
In 8 months, I will be 24...
Ten years ago, if I had known what I would have achieved by this age, would I have done anything differently? Possibly..

Why the introspection all of a sudden?
I was watching the Formula 1 race earlier this evening. At the age of 24, Fernando Alonso WON the world championship. I haven't even sat in the damn car as yet! I suppose I can't complain.. Not everyone can win a world championship by 24.

While on the subject of the Formula 1, I think I've realised why nobody in this country watches it. The commentators are absolutely AWFUL. I'm not saying that I could do it, but it was far below the standard of the guys who are on ESPN.. Perhaps if they change the commentators, more people would watch the best sport in the world.

random questionnaire

Q: How many beds did you lay in yesterday?:
A: two!

Q: What color shirt are you wearing?:
A: white

Q: Name one thing that you do everyday?:
A: take a shower

Q: Whats the color of your bedroom walls?:
A: white

Q: How much cash do you have on you right now?:
A: nothing (not suprising)

Q: Whats your favorite sport?:
A: squash

Q: I cant wait till..?:
A: firday

Q: When was the last time you saw your dad?:
A: 10th January, 2006

Q: Are you taken?:
A: Do I really need to answer this question?

Q: Whos your best friend(s)?:
A: Chloe

Q: What did you have for dinner last night?:
A: cheese burger and chips

Q: Look to your left. Whats there?:
A: caeser.

Q: Whats the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone?:
A: took a tie from my dad.

Q: What website do you visit the most?:
A : email.med.cornell.edu

Q: Do you have plants in your room?:
A: nope.

Q: Does anything hurt on your body right now?:
A: nope!

Q: What city was your last taxicab ride in?:
A: New York

Q: Do you own a picture phone?:
A: yup.

Q: Whats your favorite starbucks drink?:
A: iced café mocha.

Q: Recent time you were really upset?
A: yesterday.

Q: Would you have a problem if your friend went after your ex boyfriend/girlfriend?:
A: I dunno why, but I’m gonna say yes.


Its been a while since I've been this bored. I need to sleep.

caeser

someone told me that I'm becoming obsessed with caeser, and that he's all I talk about these days. Is that true?
and even if it is? is there anything wrong with that? He's a very major part of my life right now. Albeit, I'm usually talking about his defecatory habits, and occasionally, how frequently he goes pee pee...
Am I going to become one of those parents who speaks constantly of their children? I hope not..
I've heard parents go on and on endlessly about their children.. After a couple of minutes, and several cloying comments about how brilliant young tom or suzy (I dunno why those names popped into my head all of a sudden), these are the thoughts going through my head..
"Get on with it.."
"Are you kidding? I've hung out with your children! they're spoiled brats"
"I wonder whats for dinner"

My parents never ranted or raved about my accomplishments (few and far between as they were).. At the time, I used to be pissed off, thinking perhaps they weren't hyping up my existance as much as they should be doing so. In hindsight, I'm pretty glad they didn't.

So back to the matter at hand... Am I going to be a parent who rants and raves about his kid? Or will I just be talking about my kids pooping habits (might get embarassing for him/her once he/she (phew) hits puberty!)

growing up

I took caeser out for a walk today, and it started raining.. The poor lil guy got completely wet, and since his lower body is so close to the ground, it got very dirty too. I picked him up and got home as soon as possible.
I ran him a hot bath, and washed him with "head and Shoulders".. Dried him with a towel, and made him feel nice and warm with a blow dry.
I suddenly feel "all grown up" and very responsible. Its an awesome feeling having someone completely helpless be so totally dependent upon you.. And when you fulfill their needs, its the most gratifying feeling in the world.

i am SO ready to have children!

4 am

I drank a full bottle of coke earlier this evening, and am very wired right now.
Its 4 am.
I've tried calling all my friends, and I'm pretty sure some of them are gonna be very pissed off with me tomorrow morning.
Even the guys on the west coast are asleep.

Tomorrow aint gonna be fun.

the scientific version

don't put all your protein in one eppendorf.

I'll tell you the story behind that little pithy later this evening.

thought for the day

there's no problem so awful that you can't add a little guilt to make someone feel worse.

different strokes..

I dunno whether its just me, or a more widespread difference in the way different communities interact with each other.
Earlier this morning, just after class, I looked over at one of my friends and very nonchalantly said "man... you look like you've just crawled outta the ground".. A bit of an exaggeration, but she was clearly not having a good morning.. It was what I figured was an appropriately inappropriate comment.. She dint say much, but gave a "dont tell me something I already know" look. On leaving class however, a couple of other kids in class told me that that was an incredibly rude thing to say..!
Now I hadn't meant any offence by it, and it was clearly in jest.. But they said that even in jest, it was a highly imappropriate comment.
I was told "perhaps you can talk like that to boys, but not to girls"
Now this to me is a completely novel concept. When another person is my friend, gender ceases to be an issue. Whenever I talk to my female friends, it never occurs to me that I'm talking to a "girl".. Just another one of the dudes!
This hasn't been a problem all through college. Most of my friends being girls, were not spared. From simple insults on how fat they were, to how badly they dressed, to how dreadful they look, they got the hard, honest truth (and mebbe a bit more). And to be perfectly honest, I expected the same from them
But here.. its totally different.. Boys should "watch what they tell girls". Even best friends aren't "brutally" honest with each other. I promised my pals here that I would try my best to keep my foot out of my mouth, but I really dunno how thats gonna pan out.
So why the difference?
was it that my interaction with friends from college was just different from how normak people interact with each other?
is it a difference between friends in india, and friends out here?
or is it just that people in grad school are more grown up, and hence expect me to grow up too (i'd like to see THAT happen).

dreams and streams

I had the most absurd dream last night. I was trying to fit myself into a centrifuge, in the hope that I could "spin myself down". Getting in wasn't a problem, but I was pouring coke(?) into a bucket to see if it could serve as a balance. I wonder if it means anything?
I need to get out of the lab more often..

On a completely separate note, the apartment was in a state of total disarray after I got home this evening. lil C (caeser, my dachshund) was freaking out that I hadn't come home all day... He somehow managed to open the shoe cupboard, and pull out every last shoe.. AND.. chew up a fair number of them! To make matters worse, he decided to boycott the "wee wee pad" and poop all around the room, making the place look (and smell) very sordid. Now.. you don't just let a dg get away with stuff like this. So obviously, I yelled at him.. and raised my hand to smack him..
Big mistake.
The lil dude, afraid of what would happen, started peeing. Now when a human kid (or grown-up) is scared, and they pee, they're usually wearing clothes (hence the expression, "so scared he pissed his pants"). Unfortunately, lil C doesn't wear pants, so he unloaded on the floor.
So now, theres poop, shoes, and pee all around the floor. It looked like a bathroom from hell..
sigh. I coulddn't even blame the lil guy, so I took him out for a walk.

my gmail account/orkut still isn't opening. my life officially sucks.

what the frig??

how is it possible for the misfortune of the entire world to fall upon the shoulders of one innocent being?
obviously, I'm talking about myself.
for some weird reason, my gmail account isn't letting me access my inbox, and it says that the password I'm typing is incorrect. Highly doubtful.
To add insult to injury, my orkut account is linked to my gmail id, so I can't access that either. Now this may seem trivial, but on most days, the orkut messages are small rays of light in my otherwise bleak life. How can this possibly happen to me?
I'm going to DIE.

I exaggerate.

I'm probably going to live, but not as content as I could or should be. I need to find a way to get my account working again. Then things will be hunky dory once again.

So maybe the misfortune of the ENTIRE world isn't upon me, but theres some pretty crappy karma flying around.

AND, I woke up late this morning.

Its fate.

whipped cream

this is my third blog for the day (man.. I'm on FIRE!), but I just couldn't resist writing about this.

I'm at a coffee shop, standing in line (not a starbucks.. just incase you were wondering), when the dude infront of me orders a coffee..
"can i get a coffee please"
"sure.. what kind of milk would you like?"
"skim milk.. with sugar and extra whipped cream"

Theres something fundamentally wrong about this.
I can understand if you're on a diet.. skim milk is fine.. But really.. does anyone see the logic in having extra whipped cream with skim milk? Can you really justify the calories of the Whip by cutting out a few measly grams of fat from regular milk?

What is the world coming to?

the boy vs. girl issue

so I never really realised wot the fuss was about when people got baby genders confused.. An old lady comes up to a young mum at the supermarket, looks at her baby in the trolly, and says "my, what a lovely little boy you have". After a pointed glare, the young mum dons a superficial smile and says "why thank you, but she's actually a girl"
Honest mistake?
perhaps..

I was out taking the puppy for a walk this evening, when an old lady (!) starts "oohing and aahing" at the little guy.
So I said "Hey Ceaser, say hi"
At which point, the lady looks up at me, beams and says... "awww... she's adorable"
Now honestly.. WHY (oh why?) would anyone name a female dog CAESER!
Its not a girlie name..
and much of the roman empire would be very distressed if the average American today thought that it was.

Young mums around the world.. I feel your pain.

ridiculously happy

I have had what can easily be described as "the perfect weekend".. New York is just shedding its winter cover, and the first blossoms of spring are budding forth. The streets were full of people enjoying the weather, enjoying weekend, and enjoying New York.
So what made my weekend so perfect? Let me tell you..
Ferrari's, Porsche's, convertible BMWs, and a Maserati, among several others at the New York auto show.
Roast Duck with a tangy orange gravy at a tiny bistro on the east village, a lot of sangria, and a brilliant night out on saturday.
French Toast and Eggs Bennedict for Brunch, along with a mimosa on sunday, followed by ice cream from cold stone.. which, for the unaware, is among the best ice cream I've ever eaten.
Walks in the park with Caeser, my lil miniature daschound.
And the episode of Desperate Housewives earlier this evening kicked ass!

So as you can see, I'm riotously (is that a word?) happy... and since happiness is infectious, I hope anyone who reads this will feel some of the springtime cheer too!

pathogenic yeast

why would anyone in their right mind choose to study something like this? And why would any self-respecting institution fund research pertaining to this???
I guess I'm just annoyed at having to listen to some dude (a professor) talk about his work on pathogenic yeast for 3 hours this morning! Thats three whole hours of my life I'll never get back...
But then, I'm in grad school, so thats like 5 years I'll never get back. At least I'm not studying pathogenic yeast.
Tuberculosis rocks :-)

When I first told my friends in high school that I was planning to do a PhD, the immediate responses were not what I expected..
"oh! in what?"
"really? interesting.."
"cooooool!!!"
were the things i DIDN'T hear..

Instead, I was greeted by
"Why?"
"Are you kidding?"
"hahaha"

Now pondering about that first question, I often ask myself "Why?"
I'm..
overworked, underpaid, have no chances of significant career advances in the next 5 years (or ever), and theres a good chance that the insignificant little piece of work may not have a lasting impact on human welfare, and will probably get lost in the grand scheme of things.

Unfortunately, I just think this stuff is really cool.

relationships

has it occured to the members of the human race that the current attitude towards finding "that special someone" has been made unduly complicated?
I was out last night with a friend... the usual university scene.. beer, music and fairly meaningless chatter. Anyhow, she was telling me about some guy she was interested in, and how she hoped that he would be there that night. So after an hour, and a couple of drinks, we bump into this guy... She was talking to him, and I was trying to make myself invisible, when I see that this guy (lets call him X) gets signaled to by a friend, P. Now P, clearly excited that X is talking to a girl, gives him a thumbs up.. X, fearing embarassment, gives P a look of disapproval, but not without a smile to let P know that he's interested in my friend.
Now for a casual bystander like me, this is gold :-) I've just witnessed what was supposed to be a candid communication between these two guys... Obviously, I tell my friend.. Now she's excited that X is interested in her.. So I ask the inevitible question..
"what are you gonna do about it?"
"about what?"
"well.. this guy likes you.. are you gonna take it further?"
'Oh NO!!! I don't really want him.. I just wanted to see if I could have him, and besides, I like the attention"

Now this completely left me speechless (not an easy task).

Why would anyone want to complicate their life so unnecessarily?

Completely dinenhartened by this tragic turn of events, I wind up in a karaoke bar and sing "I will survive" very loudly, and not quite in tune...

that post-exam feeling

Bliss :-)
There's not much else I can say to describe wot I feel right now. After what seems like an eternity of studying, to finally finish the damn exam (irrespective of how you do) is a brilliant feeling.
Added to that, I actually did my taxes today, so theres two things I no longer have to do.. BIG DAY :-)
In order to reward myself, I've decided to spend the rest of the weekend semi-concious, in a drunken stupor.
C'mon.. I've earned it ;-)

rare moment of joy

I sat in class today, feeling as smug as boy in a candy shop. Over the past few days, I had been studying for a test, and had a sinking sensation that I didn't know anything, and the test was going to be a disaster. Listening to the doubts of other people in class, I sat back and realised that I knew far more than most others in class.
Should such evil thoughts be harboured? probably not..
do I care? again, probably not..

always a bridesmaid...

at the risk of sounding gay, im gonna say it anyway.. am I gonna end up being the perpetual "bridesmaid" ??
I just had a conversation with a friend about how worried she is about her relationship, and how scared that she and her boyfriend are goin too fast.. C'mon people!! Don't do this to me.
Here I am, watching my former fat/annoying/hopless friends enjoy pre-connubial bliss, while I'm (literally) watching the river go by (read the previous post)..
What went wrong? I feel like Joey at the end of friends.. and while on that subject.. whats the deal with that anyway? Its so unfair! It took them 10 years to hook the other 5 of them up.. would it have killed them to do this for another year and hook joey up with someone? Instead, they give him a crappy show to follow, and he'll forever be known as the one who didn't hook up.
Its like this new show thats coming out on television. About 7 friends, 6 of whom who hook up, and hte 7th dude who's left out.. What about Brian? (or something like that?)
Do television networks think we actually enjoy stuff like that? Does it give you "paired up" folk a good laugh to see wot the single people are upto?
sigh.
I'm ranting and raving far too much today. anything to get away from the dreaded work that needs to be done.

the east river

this is really bizarre!
the east river flows south in the morning, and north in the evening!
how is this possible?
I've been in the rockefeller library all evening, and its been flowing north.. I swear when I was here the other morning, it was flowing south.
I shall have to spend the whole day here, and watch the time at which the direction changes.

addictions

Why oh why did I have to start this Blog thing now ?? I have an enormous amount of work to do, yet, I've spent the past two and a half hours reading random peoples blogs. I've read about stuff ranging from how people milk their cows and wot they do to make a good souffle to one dude who was debating on whether or not to divorce his wife..
Since I had a bad throat last night, I took a spoonful of "non-drowsy" cough syrup. If anybody from the Vicks cough syrup company happens to read this, let me assure that the cought syrup is definately not "non-drowsy". I woke up this morning feeling very out of sorts (much like I do when I've had too much to drink the previous evening), at NOON! It goes without saying that the rest of the day was pretty unproductive. So after waking up at noon, I watched television for an hour and a half (reruns of Everybody loves Raymond), ate for an hour, had a bath, and finally left the house at 4pm. Went to the library to study, and said to myself.. "well.. lemme just check my mail".. BIG MISTAKE.. Its now 7pm, I havent done a scrap of work today, and I have an exam on thursday.. WHEN WILL I LEARN??
Sigh.
On the brighter side, I did eat a most delicious brownie this afternoon, and am feeling very pleased, in spite of myself :-)

annoyed

is it just me, or does everyone feel like their life is passing them by?
It was a beautiful day outside today, and instead of soaking up the new york scene, I was stuck in the library studying fuckin Hedgehog signalling !! Who the hell cares what signaling pathways are involved in the development of drosophila?? I certainly dont.. so why do I need to know about it??
Really.. if someone wants to study development (and I really dont know who would want to subject themselves to that).. why study it in flies? Why study anything in flies??

and by the way.. developmental biologists... THE CUTE NAMES DONT MAKE THE PROCESS ANY BETTER!

and then there was light..

So I've fianlly been coaxed into starting a blog. An evil waste of precious time, and resources.. But since I haven't got much else to do, I might as well bore the rest of the world with the inane subtilities of my life. For those of you who don't know me, and those who dont know me too well, please bear in mind that I'm simply horrible at spelling. For those of you who know me well, but didn't know that, shame on you.
So here I am, at 1.30am on a friday night, writing my first blog. Clearly, I dont have a life. I spent the last 3 hours trying to file my tax returns for the previous year.. Unsuccessfully, might I add. Is there a reason why the IRS has to make things so complicated?
So on this positive note, let me end.
untill next time, nanu nanu.