s! the outlaw torn

Memorial Day is a national holiday set aside for remembrance of those who died in the service of the nation. read more about it here. it has become more of a day to spend with the family, ushering in the summer with barbecues and picnics.

i welcomed the holiday with open arms as yet another chance to relax from what was a hectic week, and just as hectic weekend.. truly i never thought the day would come when i welcomed a national holiday as the time to relax!! weekends are rarely times to sleep in anymore, with things to do that keep popping up, which are apart from the stuff you put off for the weekend cos the week was whizzing past too fast.

sank and nats returned from their washington, new jersey & new york city road trip.. so arul (A-Rod!!) and i piled in as well, and we went hiking to what’s called the Eternal Flame, a natural gas expulsion in a grotto behind a shale waterfall. we took one of the longer hikes, and the sharp descents and steep uphills made for a good appetite-building trek. i really felt that this would be a great snowshoe hike in peak winter, but hopefully we won’t be in buffalo for another winter!

so the trail follows the spurs and peaks of one side of the river valley, then goes down to meet the river, and then you walk back upstream along the shale banks to the small waterfall, where erosion of the shale layers has exposed seams from which natural gas seeps up to the surface. luckily the rains haven’t really kicked in, and the melting snows have long gone, so the river was reduced to no more than a bubbling brook. we’d taken the football with us, and on the way back did some uphill cross-country climbing, with the ball tucked in under one arm.. really felt like this was how running backs build stamina in american football.

A-Rod finally treated us today for all his jobs etc.. a sumptuous Indian dinner at Kabab & Curry, excellent top-notch food! thanks mate! tandoori chicken and kingfisher beer, just like old times! ) i came home and promptly passed out, tired, full and happy..

PS: i think i’m finally acting like a grad student working on his thesis.. i got up in the middle of the night to actually work!

this was family weekend.. my cousin bro landed up in buffalo with wife and kid, plus his parents for the Memorial Day weekend.. man i felt so freaking old when the kid started calling me ‘uncle’!! aargh!!

so did the usual touristy stuff.. a trip to the Niagara Falls, and on sunday a day at Letchworth State Park.. with the alarming regularity that i do this kind of guide duty, its quite amazing the folks at the Falls haven’t given me a ‘Staff’ badge yet!!

anyways, not much else to write about, so enjoy the pics..

going with Grace’s tip for Adult Swim’s ‘Robot Chicken’.. i found some ten or so episodes on the college network.. hilarious stuff!! they create the most elaborate spoofs, using goofy humor laced with real life sarcasm, with surprisingly expressive clay-puppet lookalikes.. this is stuff you gotta see!! check out some of the content!

i’ve been completely won over by Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s latest reincarnation, targetted at a more mature audience. between 11 pm and 5am, it’s time for the non-teens to reinvent childhood characters and forgotten fables.. and the range covers everything from sci-fi to sarcasm, samurais to swank. very very trippy, i gotta say.

i am Samurai Champloo’s newest fan.. despite the odd-sounding name, the plot is, in the creators’ own words.. “A modernized hip-hop tale breaking the barriers of the common, historical, samurai anime.” it’s got a pretty simple storyline, click on the ‘characters’ & ‘episode guide’ buttons on the official site to learn more about how Fuu brings together Mugen and Jin to help her achieve her goal.

some people are born great, some achieve greatness,
and some have greatness thrust upon them,
and then there are few, who just have all of it.

it’s the middle of the freakin’ nite.. i’m working 8-7 in the morning, and sleep is an elusive mistress.. so what else is there to do but blog.. man i wish i was an undergrad again. heck, we’d be drinking and raising hell right about now.. then we’d play floodlit soccer, and later stuff ourselves silly.. and at this time of the night, get stoned, lie on the grass watching the stars and listen to eclectic music until sunrise, time to sleep..

he-man (aka bunty) had come over for the weekend from atlanta.. and the pinkster was supposed to haul his hairy self up from columbus , but being the lazy f*#ker he is, he hadn’t finished the work he was supposed to so that he could make it. it was a nice mellow weekend, especially cos vip had left for baltimore and sank was in cali with his parents.. lazed around, ate some good food and slept like dead horses.

i’m still on the guilt trip regarding my work and all.. i think it’s in the air or something, this stupid ‘make-you-feel-like-crap’ virus.. and i swear i’m gonna kick the shit outta whoever passed this bug to me!! so if you know you’re the bugger who came around spreading this, then you better avoid me.. cos i’m likely to fly off the handle pretty fast especially while i’m sorting out my withdrawal issues in this period of abstinence.

yes, you read that right.. i decided to lay off the rockstar lifestyle for at least until next week (or until i finish collecting the datasets from my experiments, whichever comes first). now don’t you go getting all supercilious and high-handed on me, nor should you feel sorry for me.. cos man, the day i actually finish this goddamn thesis and get a job.. i’m gonna build such a huge f*#kin’ bonfire and throw so much weed on it that even folks on the pacific coast are gonna be seeing the dogs shine and hearing the stars bark!

yeah.. that feels much better now. damn, if only i could get some sleep.

hehe, this time the Cat got me! LOL!

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
saurabh – pronounced saw-rub
soray – always easier to say!
jolly – *blush* it’s what my family calls me..

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
yeahbaby – oh yeah baby!
soraystud – my oldest id..
djcalvin – from my college radio days

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
designer stubble – the first redeeming quality on my face!
wicked eyes – the other redeeming quality
sheer laziness – it IS a physical thing, i just don’t get up!!

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
kinda short – i kinda missed out on 6′, by quite a few inches
the rest of me i can pretty much live with!

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
indian – origin, kenyan – born n’ bred, american – settled (hopefully!)

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
little kids in horror movies – what is with that shit man?!
driving fast between two trailer-trucks – don’t ask, it just happens
running out of women/beer/cigarettes/pot on a deserted island – haha

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
lots of food, aimless lounging and some kickass rock

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
nothing but a smile! hah, kiddin’!! jeans, t-shirt and sneakers (i’m at work, hello!)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
wild, crazy and kinky sex! (is that three things, or one?!)
good conversation
personal space

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE (in no particular order):
i’m an eternal optimist
i sing pretty good
i’m a one-girl guy

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
nothing like a fine ass, baby!!
hot lips
smartness (i guess you can say brains are a physical thing!)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
finish my goddamn thesis, now!
go to california – wish i had the time and money
sleeeeep..

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING:
biomaterials engineer – it’s what i’m studying
engineering consultant – it’s an option
wanton playboy – it’s playtime baby.. yeah right!

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
lying on a beach in bahamas
going backpacking in europe
exploring australia properly

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
errm, kids? you kidding me right?!

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
try my hand at a home microbrewing operation
grow and smoke up my own hydroponic weed
hold down a decent job, and a good woman.. literally

THREE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TO TAKE THIS QUIZ NOW:
lemme tag people i didn’t get last time!
he-man aka bunty.. george.. & shub – gotcha!!

aaargh Nina, you tagged me!! okay, y’all know how this goes.. a fellow blogger ‘tags’ you, and you fill in this stuff, and pass on the tag to 5 other bloggers (we all hate chain mail, but this is just for fun, so chill.. and don’t condemn me to fiery hell etc!!)

1. Total number of films I own on dvd/video:

i hope this doesn’t mean just originals.. cos years of access to P2P forums allowed me to build a pretty sizeable collection of DivX rips .. i’d say somewhere around fifty or so..

2. The last film I bought:

again, i either go watch the flick in the theater, or wait for the DVD rip!! but i did buy ‘Ray’ for a friend’s birthday.

3. The last film I watched:

On tv: ‘Gone In 60 Seconds’, on TNT this weekend. God i love cars!!
In the theater: ‘Crash’, an excellent movie. some brilliant acting performances in that.

4. Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

- ‘Saving Private Ryan’: i know it’s pretty grim and all that, but it’s a very well-made film.
- ‘Harold & Kumar Go To Whitecastle’: anyone who’s ever felt the ‘munchies’ during a trip, please nod with me here.
- ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’: i love this movie.. its an absolute mind-fuck!
- ‘Fight Club’: talking about mind-fucks, here’s another one that just changes your thinking forever!
- ‘Andaaz Apna Apna’: this is a pretty old hindi movie, but man what a barrel of laughs!! “aila! govinda!!”..”chamaila! tu kaun?!”

5. Tag five people and have them put this in their journal:

lol, so who all should i get?! deeps, diamonds, dreamcatcher, reshma, nick, gotcha!!

What potent blood hath modest May.
- Ralph W. Emerson

so there i was on sunday evening making grand plans of how i was going to finally get off my lazy behind, and beverylatedly start getting some stuff done that i’d been putting off for ages. my goddamn thesis for one! you would have thought that as a graduate student trying to get out of grad school by august, i should be earnestly buried up to my elbows in data and figures – yeah right! all the burying i’m subjecting my elbows to is in coal, to fire up the grill!

the month of may has been an unending litany of booze, babes, barbecues, bongs, and binges. if i sound like i’m complaining, believe me i’m not.. it’s been a blast! however, other central characters in the plot (the parents, thesis advisor, dept. secretary) have been more than interested in my academic progress, leading to persistent phonecalls, meddling mails and inquisitive IMs.. not a good thing eh?!

even though i’ve always suspected that no good can ever come out of a monday morning, today i came to the impassioned conclusion that not only is that true, but it holds for all other facets of monday too, i.e. monday lunchtime, monday afternoon, and as things go, monday evening and night also. so in that vein, i’m headed back to my comfy couch and remote control, see you all on tuesday.