my dad brought home a Mont Blanc which was given to him by his colleague. knowing my penchant for fountain pens he gave it to me and happily escaped having to give me a birthday gift a few months down the line. i mean, c’mon! it’s a Mont Blanc, it’s classy writing epitomised!

anyhow i opened the box to find it was one of their signature series,with a gold nib and platinum tipped and foolishly told the pater about it( shudda written with it first!). he called up the store’s #  and found out that the pen was-hold your breath-just a mere 26K.

it was out of my hands and back in the box before i could start the “u-gave-it-to-me-it’s-mine-and-i-wont-give-it-back-and-if-you-loved-me-you-wudnt-take-it-away-from-me-MAAA!!!” routine.

so there it was, one of the finest( and let’s not forget PISH!!) writing instruments ever forged and it was mine for a nanosecond. parkers seem like such a consolation prize right now :o(

forbes’ has compiled a list of nations which boast of rampant corruption as their USP.

we seem to have dogded the bullet(dont ask me how) and it seems things really arent as bad as they seem here from time to time.

have a look see

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/2006/01/24/06caphosp_corrupt_slide.html

over the years gangsta rap has assumed a cult status and contrary to popular belief it’s not just about promoting sex,drugs&rock’n’roll. it also tells about the fallbacks of the same. 
so what if they use words like “nigga” to connote friend?does it mean that they’ve turned against their own people and are ashamed of the color of their skin? there’s a kind of reverse snobbery that the oppressed come to garb themselves in after years and years of subjugation. this often robs them of their sense of humor or being able to see things in a lighter vein. as long as a man’s talking sense shud it matter that he’s using words that a section of the people find objectionable? shud he adhere only to their sentiments and deny his self-expression? 
why not see these words as means or ends to reach the vast majority of confused and often drug&booze-addled youngsters find some self-expression and acceptance? after all it’s speaking their lingo. when was communicating a bad thing? people shud chill for a while and not read between the lines, especially when there’re none to read!

a maha sarci friend of mine is always looking for ways of telling people off and doing it in a witty/sardonic manner to boot.
if i dint know him better i’d say he’s written this stuff himself.
http://www.officeslang.com/

i wonder how i can get by on minimum/no sleep when there’s work to be done and when there isnt anything pressing i’m the epitome of rip van winkle!

my mom said i was born with an internal snooze button.

a friend got me hooked onto himesh reshammiya’s songs. i just knew him as a music director but his hatke aawaaz’s something to watch out for.

his tera saroor album is great! plus the song “naam tera”…amazing! i tend to have a new song looped until i get tired of it. fortunately my folks tire of it much sooner than i do so i’m left in isolation to blast away the songs again&again&again…you get the picture.

another reco is the book “the house of sand and fog” by andre dubus III. havent finished with it yet but it’s turning out to be a good read. think i’ll start my own book review club a la O!

http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:142230

came across an article about testing on animals. now, i really like animals although i’m an out&out omnivore but when it comes to drawing the line where does one draw it?

i think that if it’s for medical purposes and it might help in even just shedding a light on a disease or a way to prevent it, then animal testing can be carried out. but if it’s to find out if a particular cosmetic will cause an adverse reaction in humans, then animal testing is crap!

it can also be argued that if something’s meant for the people then why not test on people themselves to begin with. why not indeed? but who do you choose as candidates?the homeless, teh winos, the ne’er do wells? who? at least with a human being there is a chance to realise their potentials and actually achieve something in life at some point or the other. with animals that potential doesnt exist. they can be taught many things, they’re quite intelligent but eveything that we know about them has been brought to the forefront by humans through years of testing. to the extent that if we talk of conditioning in people Pavlov’s dogs immediately come to mind.

at the end of the day, callous as it may sound, an animal is still expendable to a degree that a human being wont ever be. and that’s the accepted truth, atleast for now.

it’s a saturday. am working tomorrow.people at work are all BAD!!!need java in an IV!!!need to kick someone’s hieney…HARD!!!

life, how sweet it is!